The Galaxy Project
by GMBlackjack
Summary: In a galaxy where dozens of sci-fi franchises are smashed together, many civilizations will butt heads and learn more about the nature of the cosmos. But in the deep future, a threat is coming that no one in the galaxy is aware of. The galaxy only has 250 years to prepare. In the midst of all this, the Tau'ri must rise to the challenge and take up the mantle of the Great Alliance.
1. Prologue

**_PROLOGUE_**

(ORBSyndicate)

December 21, 2012.  
The whole Earth was holding it's breath. Dozens of world leaders had locked themselves up in the Headquarters of the United Nations for the past week, meeting for an unknown purpose. News stations, journalists, and conspiracy theorists worldwide were making wild guesses as to what they were doing there. Discussing the fate of the planet? Trying to hash out a worldwide treaty? How to deal with the Middle East? Declassifying some important information?

Whatever it was, they had been there for an entire week, so it was rather obvious that it was going to be very important - probably change the human outlook on life.

Strangely, about three days in major religious leaders were called into the meeting as well, raising even more questions. Were they discussing something spiritual in nature? Was armageddon coming? Did science discover the soul or something? Was the world doomed from a meteor about to crash into the planet?

People were getting really tense. Larger-scale violence had not broken out - yet - but it was definitely going to occur if the world leaders didn't come out and say something soon.

On December 21, 2012, the doors of the UN swung open. The President of the United States, Henry Hayes, walked up to a podium. Reporters were everywhere outside the UN, pointing their cameras and asking questions rapidly. Hayes simply held up his hands, gesturing for quiet. He cleared his throat.

"Today, I have been chosen to impart some news to the citizens of the world. We have been debating for a whole week on the best way to do this, and after all this time we decided there was no need to be roundabout about it. The news is very simple.

We are not alone in the universe."

Hayes paused as he heard many people in the crowd gasp. Some looked panicked.

"Now now, there's no need to panic, there's not any immediate danger to Earth at the moment. To be honest, there used to be. But we have decided to declassify everything now since, at the moment, there is peace in our corner of the galaxy and we are poised to enter a new era of human existence.

Our human race began our foray to the stars with the launch of Sputnik. Then we landed on the moon many decades ago, that one step indeed being a giant leap and a defining moment in our history. The next giant leap we made, however, was not one anyone here is aware of. Before we even set foot on the moon, we discovered an ancient artifact buried beneath the sand of Egypt - a giant ring made out of a material none of our scientists could identify. We had no clue what it was, but we were quickly able to discover that it wasn't human in origin. It took the efforts of archeologist Daniel Jackson to finally crack the code of the device - called a stargate - which we activated for the first time in 1996. When we did this, that one small step opened pandora's box. We triggered a war with an alien race known as the Goa'uld who dominated this sector of the galaxy. They wanted to use humans as slaves, and as we soon discovered they had in the deep past occupied Earth itself. Due to the actions of the Goa'uld and an ancient race known as the Alterans, human beings are spread across the galaxy, all of which originate from this planet. They are our lost brethren.

The war with the Goa'uld lasted for eight years, but eventually with help from various alien and otherworldly human allies, we won. However, it took another war with a race of beings known as the Ori to truly bring us all together. What was once a bunch of separate worlds had to band together to face a threat that wanted to wipe all of us out. That war ended back in 2007. Since then, we have for the first time enjoyed peace in the cosmos.

In that time, we began to put in place a plan. The war with the Ori decimated many of our otherworld allies, mostly our lost human brethren. We have been sending them aid for some time, and we are forever indebted to them for what they sacrificed to ensure that our race continues to survive. Today is the day we introduce some new nations to the UN, lost brethren from other worlds."

He waved his hands, and nothing seemed to happen. Then people gasped and pointed into the sky. A dozen or so black shapes were descending from the sky. Seven of them were similar in size and shape - large rectangular craft with two smaller rectangles off to each side. These made a deep thrumming noise as they approached, and the flags of major Earth nations could be seen imprinted on them. Behind them were four other craft. One a giant golden pyramidal ship, another a round white ship with a glowing thing not unlike a star inside it, and a smaller blue ship with alien writing all over it. The fourth larger ship seemed to be of a similar design to the seven other craft, but much larger and with four rectangular structures around the center. It has the UN logo printed on it, along with large words indicating the ship's name.

"Mister President, the is General O'Neill calling from the Enterprise. Are you ready for the delegates?"

"Send them down." Hayes spoke into the mic.

"You're clear, Commeral."

The blue ship - apparently designated the Commeral - drifted to just above the president, and shot out a beam of light and a series of rings appeared on the stage behind him. Suddenly, there were several delegates standing there, each with their nations flag or symbol imprinted on their shirts: all of which no-one had ever seen before.

One delegate caused a collective gasp. She was obviously not human, but some kind of humanoid reptile. Hayes smirked as the people all started talking. He waved for silence, but it didn't happen. The other world leaders motioned for silence as well, but the crowd was too busy yelling.

A gunshot went off, bouncing off a shield put in place around the leaders.

The voice of O'Neill could be heard over the Enterprise's loudspeaker. "Hey, if you want answers, you have to A) be quiet and let them talk and B) not shoot them. Got it? Good. By the way, just beamed up the shooter. He seems to not be all there, if you know what I mean."

The reminder that there was a big hulking spaceship above them shut everyone up.

Hayes smiled. "Thanks Jack."

"No problemo."

Hayes rolled his eyes. "Now that that is over with… I see you've seen Saril, a member of the race known as Serrakins. They are from the only nation that currently occupies more than one world, the Hebridan Commerce. Their society is half human, half Serrakin, and they live together in harmony, just like we hope we can. With the additions of these peoples, we now effectively own a somewhat large section of the cosmos. We also have highly advanced technology gifted to us by the dying race known as the Asgard, which ensures our safety as we continue to explore the galaxy. We should be extremely honored to receive the legacy of the Great Alliance that spanned the galaxy millions of years ago.

While the UN will be keeping the Asgard technology strictly regulated, we will be giving the less advanced but still world changing technology to the public domain so everyone can make it. We expect that within five years we will be able to construct civilian starships, solve the energy crisis, and put a serious dent in world hunger now that we can use all these technologies out in the open. Earth will become the center of a new age in space.

A new branch of the UN is also being implemented today, an interstellar government called the Tau'ri Alliance devoted to representing humanity - and any nonhumans in the UN - to the rest of the galaxy. Leaders have already been selected, and all the information on the Tau'ri Alliance, as well as most of the stargate missions and history, will be available for everyone to read on the Internet within a few hours.

Speaking of the rest of the galaxy, we have to allies to the Tau'ri floating above us right now. You two can come down now."

More rings appeared, depositing two people. Both were men, one somewhat young and in what appeared to be knight armor, another really old, bearded, and displaying a golden mark on his forehead.

"May I introduce Tomin and Brae'tac, leaders in the star-spanning unions that are our allies.

Brae'tac spoke first. "It is an immense pleasure to finally see the general people of Earth. I am from a race known as the Jaffa, a race designed by the Goa'uld to be warriors in their army and hosts for their young. We are an old race, deeply set in our traditions of honor, battle, and glory. When your people came into the fight against the Goa'uld, I must admit I saw them merely as good warriors who stood a chance at finally overthrowing the Goa'uld overlords. Now, looking back I can see that they fought us something. They showed us that while sometimes battle is necessary, honor can be achieved through brokering peace and showing mercy. It was - and still is - difficult for Jaffa to accept a world where not all of us are warriors, but the Free Jaffa Nation is learning. I, as a member of the Jaffa high council, extend my thanks to you for teaching us how to accept our newfound freedom from the Goa'uld, in addition to helping us achieve it." He bowed, gesturing to Tomin.

Tomin nodded. "My people's story is similar to the Jaffa, except that our overlords were the Ori. They were beings of immense power who we worshipped as gods, we didn't know that our worship was actually what gave them their power. The Tau'ri, the Jaffa, and their allies had to show us the truth rather forcefully and get us to rescind our old masters. The Ori are gone now, defeated in the war by a machine left behind from a past age. They left us behind, a people who were very confused and lost about what to do - our only purpose in life had been to worship the Ori, and they provided for us. With them gone, what would we do?

Like Brae'tac, I must thank you for helping us get back onto our feet. You showed us that the Book of Origin, the religion the Ori gave us, was appealing because most of it was right. It told us how to behave, how to treat each other, and that it was actually remarkably similar to the doctrines of your own Christianity. We have found that without the Ori, no-one is keeping us in check. But we have also found that the freedom to make our own decisions has given us more life. And for your help, I thank you. I also thank you for finding a way to stop us on our crusade without large death.

We, the people of the Reform, look forward to peaceful relations with your people. The Ori may be gone, but they left us with a lot of ships and technology from the war that we are more than willing to share." He nodded.

Hayes smiled. "Citizens of the Earth, let us take the thanks these two powerful individuals have offered us and prove ourselves worthy of our respect. They have met our leaders, our soldiers, our diplomats, and our scientists. Let's let them feel just as proud to call the rest of the world friends. Let us not throw the world into turmoil, but let us look forward into the stars.

Let us venture forth into the vast stars, helping those who are in need, and proving to the galaxy that we deserve what we have been given. Let us usher in a new era of human existence."

There was silence.

Then there was applause.

O'Neill, sitting in the bridge of the Enterprise, smirked.

 _Well whaddoya know, it went well._

The future seemed bright for the Tau'ri. A new era was about to dawn.


	2. T-MINUS 250 YEARS

_**NOTE: there was a formatting error. That has been fixed. -GM, master of forts.**_

 _ **T-MINUS 250 YEARS**_

 ** _(ORBSyndicate and CrowbarKnight)_**

 ** _EARTH THEATRE_**

The world's reaction to the news was mixed. The world leaders of the various nations and the religious leaders gave many speeches over the course of the next week, trying to keep everyone calm and orderly. The world was anything but calm and orderly. The Internet exploded within minutes of the announcement, everyone flooding the UN website with all the information and posting it everywhere. They discovered the existence of the Wraith quickly, and discovered that many events over the last decade had really been influenced by aliens. Some people were understandably mad, yelling at the entire world for having a conspiracy. Mentions of the Illuminati were brought up both in jest and semi-seriously. Many of these people quickly realized that they hadn't been told for their own protection - and if there had been a war going on there would probably have been more mass panic than there already was. Revealing it now was obviously a strategic move: the population didn't have to worry about annihilation at this point in time. The only nearby hostile force, the Lucian Alliance, did not have the resources (or the guts) to attempt a run on Earth. There was the initial fear of aliens ending up ruling the world, but with only the Serrakins being truly alien, most people were eventually accused of being racist, and that shut them up for the most part.

There were very few violent riots even among the angry people. They were angry that they weren't told earlier, but they couldn't riot with any real purpose in mind because they were already told. Aside from the few groups who tried to get laws passed that prevented the governments from keeping secrets, there was little organized political movement against the governments and their choices.

Laws had already been established regarding space travel and alien technology during the week the UN was in session, giving more than a few lawyers a bit of a headache with the new major laws coming in. The Tau'ri Alliance itself was unique: it was essentially an uber-government that represented the interests of all nations within the Alliance. There was no definite leader of the Alliance - there were representatives from each nation, and department heads which collectively made up the Alliance Command. General O'Neill was quickly put in charge of the military arm due to his experience in the field, while Daniel Jackson became in charge of the diplomatic relations arm. There were other arms: such as research and development, exploration, colonization, and trade.

The economy took less than a week to start booming, new companies came into existence that began to not only use the alien technologies suddenly at their disposal, but also to try and improve them to use in the daily lives of the Earth population. Economies skyrocketed, and the overall wealth of the planet increased. Relief programs were created within a month of the announcement, giving food to needy peoples in Africa, and helping along their industrialization. Companies like Space X began to experiment with the hyperdrives they were given, already drawing up plans for commercial ships.

Violence did threaten to erupt in the Middle East a few times due to much political unrest, but the simple presence of the Enterprise looming over their heads quieted most of them. (After the bombs turned out to do nothing to the shields, at least.) There was obviously still resentment in the Middle East, but they couldn't do anything at the moment, and the governments were cracking down on the terrorist organizations with all the technology they could use now. The organizations likely wouldn't survive more than a few years.

One would expect many countries to complain and threaten the other nations, but those concerns were dealt with during the UN week conference - any objecting countries ended up getting extra aid, technology, or money in some form or other.

A month and a half after the speech, Hebridan ships were given the go ahead to start advertising themselves as passenger ships to take civilians to other locations in the Alliance, though any ship carrying civilians could not leave Tau'ri space without clearing it with the Alliance Command, and all interstellar ships needed to be registered and carefully monitored so no-one tried to sneak away.

There were a few reports of civilians trying to hijack the ships, but none succeeded.

The economies of Hebridan and Earth began to merge, causing a little healthy competition to develop. The Hebridan peoples had an advantage in that they were advanced and already had an economy, but their disadvantage was that they had very few economic bases on Earth: Earth had the home advantage. It kept companies from becoming lazy.

Similar things happened on the other worlds of the alliance, though on most planets the economy wasn't strong enough to compete with that of Hebridan and Earth. They began to create their own civilian ships as well.

People were still uneasy about aliens, but since only the Serrakins were obviously not human, people either had to become paranoid that people walking among them were aliens, or just accept it. There was a lot of prejudice, but laws protected everyone rather effectively.

The first colony of Earth was created on a planet which was named Midgard, after the Asdgard's name for Earth. The Odyssey, over the course of several days, deposited several thousand colonists on the world, actually being faster than using the Stargate.

The Jaffa and the Reform were very open and welcoming to any people who wished to visit their lands, though the Reform was somewhat difficult to get to since the supergate took a while to activate and dial.

The Lucian Alliance and some less-than-clean individuals began to form a trade agreement, going under the Tau'ri Alliance's nose. The Command was aware of this, but not able to really do anything about it since a war with the Lucians was definitely not the thing they needed right now.

Langara quickly became the planet for Tau'ri Alliance government ships to be built - though only Deadalus class ones.

[][][][][[][][][][][][][]

The bustling planet of Langara was covered in three distinct nations, Kelowna, Tirania, and The Andari Federation. The three had been in bloody wars in the past, but with the Goa'uld and Ori wars had learned to coexist. All three of them were at work creating more ships for the Tau'ri fleet: only a dozen ships existed, including the Enterprise. While the ships were powerful and highly advanced compared to most other ships in known space, the low numbers were a serious problem. The Langarans were expecting to be able to produce a Deadalus-class ship every three months, assuming they could keep getting materials shipments from other worlds via stargate. The three nations were really attracted to the idea of their nations having a ship with their logo imprinted on it, even though with the formation of the Alliance Command the ships weren't actually owned by any single nation. Essentially who built it got to put the flag on it.

The Odyssey was currently in orbit, with the Asgard Core monitoring all construction processes. The actual consciousness of the Asgard had been transferred to a secret facility on Earth to ensure their protection until a solution for their condition could be found, but the computer itself was more than capable of analyzing an entire planet on its own. Everything was running smoothly.

Then a proximity alarm went off. Colonel Caldwell jumped in his seat, coming to full alertness. "What is it?"

"Ship of unknown design, dropped out of some kind of FTL travel that wasn't hyperspace" a crewmen responded.

Caldwell frowned. "What are they doing?"

"Scanning us."

"Hail them. Send the greeting we have planned for this. Tell the Langarans not to shoot it."

"Yes sir. Message sent. We're receiving video reply."

"Put it up." Caldwell said.

The alien on the screen was humanoid in shape, but obviously not human. The forehead was more pronounced and the eyebrows were more extreme, in addition to the pointy ears.

"Greetings. We also come in peace. I am Orik, and I represent the Vulcans. We are curious to learn more about your race."

Caldwell nodded. "And we you. I'll send a message to Command to get a diplomat here. Will you be willing to stay here until then?"

"As you wish." Orik said. "We have many questions."

Caldwell smirked. "As do we. Caldwell out."

The line went dead.

"They're continuing to scan."

"Let them, there's nothing down there of particular danger for them to know. They've likely already figured out its a major construction planet. Let's just see how this pans out…"

[][][][][[][][][][][][][]

"So, Daniel, what's the verdict on these Vulcan fellows?" O'Neill asked Daniel Jackson a week later.

"They are a peaceful, if extremely rigid society." Daniel responded. "Their entire society is founded on the principles of emotional suppression and logical thinking as a way of life. They seem to be rather curious, scientific, and inquisitive and-"

"Daniel."

"Yes Jack?"

"I don't need the full story: I'll get that from the reports I'm forced to read."

Daniel shrugged. "They are peaceful and interested in furthering relations. They are interested in meeting our allies, and mentioned that they are aware of a couple of other races themselves. I think we'll be scheduling a meeting soon so we can make a culture exchange."

Jack nodded, appearing to be deep in thought but really just thinking about how hungry he was at the moment.

"Jack…"

"What?"

"This is important. This is our first time meeting a race without a backdrop of war. And it seems very likely that we are the more advanced race this time, and that we will not be able to give technology to them."

"I trust you to find the balance Danny-boy. O'Neill out." The screen went dead.

Daniel tapped his fingers on the table. They were entering a new era, and he wasn't entirely sure how it was going to go.

[][][][][[][][][][][][][]

"Oooh what about this fellow? He looks handsome."

Cameron Mitchell groaned. "Vala, that's an advertisement in a newspaper selling baked beans. That is not the potential SG-1 team members list…"

"Oh." Vala said, pausing a moment before throwing the newspaper over her shoulder. "So what options do we have?"

"Still need to find two team members that can actually handle it out there as members of the first-contact team for Earth. It's been several years and I've found nobody."

"Arnold was allright-"

"He accidentally told the natives "we come hungry" instead of "we come in peace." They decided we were going to eat them."

"…Fair point." Vala strutted to the other side of the room. "Perhaps you could ask Daniel or Sam to come back?"

"Way too busy with their own larger-scope jobs now." Cam muttered. "And I really don't know anyone."

"Perhaps they do. Maybe you should ask them to find someone."

Cam shrugged. "I guess it's as good idea as anything at this point…"

[][][][][[][][][][][][][]

Professor Herschel Layton had been expecting the call from his old friend and colleague Daniel Jackson for some time now. Ever since the stargate went public and he was able to do his investigations with a little less secrecy, he knew he would be asked once more to be part of the stargate program.

He had discovered several alien and Alteran ruins on Earth during the course of his archeological careers, and had been made aware of the existence of the stargate program mostly because the governments couldn't have him talking about everything he had discovered. So he basically accepted a job as "consultant" for the UN government, reporting all of his findings to them. He had been asked to come in on the stargate program itself, but aside from a few visits to Cheyanne Mountain to help with some ancient technology, he never did anything. He did not want to go off world, where the people he cared about would never hear form him again or have any idea what happened to him.

Luke and Layton's other friends and assistants had no idea what he'd done until a few days after the gate was declassified, afterwhich he told them everything.

And now that they would know where he was going…

Well regardless of the position he was being offered he was probably going to have to expend a lot of mental effort to refuse the offer.

"Hey Hershel! How would you like to be part of SG-1?"

Well that wasn't the voice you said "no" to. He said he would need a week to get everything together, but he would be there shortly.

He explained everything to everyone he knew, knowing they all understood. He promised to visit often, and knew that he likely would be able to since the gate was on Earth.

He would become an archeologist of ruins more ancient then even he could imagine… the ideas were tantalizing. The possibilities so grand…

[][][][][[][][][][][][][]

"You have no right to search our ships!" The Lucan Alliance commander yelled.

O'Neill rubbed his forehead. "Ugh. Listen here mister… Fred was it?"

"Fralachik!"

"Right. Fred. Listen here, you are in our space, so you follow our rules. And if you want to sell here, we will need to search your ship for contraband that we know your people have been sneaking in for the past few months. So you either let us search your ship, or you leave.

"But you let the Jaffa ship through!"

"That's because we trust them. We do not trust you. Sorry!"

The Lucian Alliance commander huffed before shutting down the comm system. Seconds later, O'Neill recognized his blunder. He groaned, before giving the order to start searching Jaffa ships as well since he just knew the Lucians were going to try something…

[][][][][[][][][][][][][]

The table had six sides. Cam couldn't exactly understand why the Vulcans had a table with six sides specially made for this meeting. Was it to easily separate the factions apart? Was it to make everyone feel more organized? Or was it just that Vulcan tables were generally hexagonal?

He really wished Daniel were here instead, but he apparently had to go deal with a Lucian/Reform skirmish and stop the hostilities.

Cam once again found himself wondering how stupid could the Lucians get. Kidnapping a Prior? Flippin' idiots.

Speaking of Priors, to his side was one of them, representing the Reform. He still couldn't get used to them being on the good side. He tried his best, but the sight of them still made him a little antsy. Though they seemed to fascinate Layton. Everything fascinated that guy, but unlike a lot of archeologist types he didn't get a lot of energy about him. You would just see a glint in his eye and a slight smirk when something made sense, and a look of deep thought when he was thinking. The man was quiet a lot of the time, but when he had something to say everybody just seemed to listen.

He was also really good at debating…

"No, Sel, do not scan that. We don't know what it does."

"But-"

"No."

Cameron sighed. They still hadn't found a good science officer. This one was from Hebridan, and just flat out didn't understand the meaning of the word privacy.

Teal'c was standing at the Jaffa side of the table, face stoic as usual. He would likely not do much talking and instead let his Jaffa companions do most of it.

On the other side of the table were the Vulcans, who seemed interested, if a little distant. The Andorians Cam quickly recognized as a bunch of blue-skinned arrogant humanoids who thought they needed no-one else. And the Tellarites…

The Tellurian ambassador managed to talk with Layton in a debate for a full twenty minutes before the other representatives even got together.

And now there was silence. Everyone was standing, and nothing was happening. Awkward didn't even begin to describe it.

The Vulcans decided to speak first.

"Perhaps you could begin by telling us how you managed to transform this sector of the galaxy so quickly?"

Cam began to open his mouth, but Layton jumped to his rescue. The professor recounted, over the course of the next half hour, all the important details of the story of the Tau'ri, from the discovery of the stargate to the formation of the Tau'ri Alliance. He did it eloquently, intellectually, and he obviously knew what he was talking about. When he ended, there was silence.

"That is a truly… intriguing tale." The Vulcan responded.

"Intriguing?" A Tellurian said. "It's downright impressive and a bit hard to believe. I look forward to debating much with them. Ancients that spanned the galaxy? Pah, the truth has to be something a bit more complicated than that."

"You… That's the complaint you have?" An Andorian exclaimed. "The entire tale reeks of exaggeration and stretching! There's no way it could be as this man said! Who are you anyway?"

"Professor Layton of SG-1." Layton responded.

"We can corroborate most of the story." Teal'c said. "Although we are more likely to exaggerate it as our people are prone to telling great tales of glory."

"Our people can confirm the latter half of it." The Prior noted. "We have had direct contact with the Ori."

"Now." Vala said, spinning in her chair. "Your turn. What's your area of the woods like?" She smirked.

The Vulcans recited their long and frankly rather boring history founded in logic. Cam saw that look in Layton's eye that suggested this was all fascinating.

The Tellarites were entertaining, in their story they sometimes broke out into disagreements about the specifics of a certain era of history before the Vulcans or Andorians urged them to get past their disagreement and move on. To them debate was obviously a sport.

The Andorian tale…

"Ha! Who's the exaggerator now?" A Jaffa said, getting the death glare from both Teal'c and the Andorian speaking.

"I'll have you know warm-blood that the Andorians have a long history of great accomplishments, unlike these logical Vulcans and debating Tellarites-"

"As do the Jafa." Teal'c responded. "Please do not let our differences get in the way of our further relations."

Something about the way Teal'c said please got the Andorian to shut up.

The talks continued throughout the day. At the end Cam made an assessment:

Tellarites: Friendly, if a bit argumentative.

Vulcans: Couldn't be read at all. Seemed virtually neutral about everything.

Andorians: Obviously somewhat hostile to others, though not militant. Yet.

He knew from the technological reports that none of these three races had any technology beyond that of the Hebridans, so they were unlikely to be a threat in either case.

[][][][][[][][][][][][][]

"So…" O'Neill said as he paced the room. "I was hoping the Enterprise would be the one to finally catch you…"

The Lucian Alliance member was silent.

"Try to smuggle the cargo on a Jaffa ship without them even knowing. Nice try, but as you can see it didn't work."

Still nothing from the Lucian.

"Now, you can tell me what I want to know about your operations now, or I can hand you over to the Jaffa and see what they come up with. I can see you're thinking: why would going back to the Jaffa be worse? Well, all you did to us was fail to smuggle some goods over the border. You lied to the Jaffa and tried to pin the crime on them in order to use them as a scapegoat."

The Lucian's eyes widened.

"Not to mention that we have laws preventing torture. The Jaffa have no such laws."

Silence.

"You know what I think I'll go call them now… Toodeloo!" And then he walked out.

The Lucian lasted about five more minutes before cracking. O'Neill smirked.

[][][][][[][][][][][][][]

More and more colonies were placed inside the decided borders of Tau'ri space. While there were hundreds of worlds within the area, they only colonized a little over twelve at the start. Their ships and the gate system made distances no problem whatsoever, and the Tau'ri managed to obtain a rather large section of the Galaxy (compared to Vulcans at least).

After these dozen colonies were placed, colonization stopped, allowing for the worlds to grow and develop in order to support themselves, planning to remain this way for a few decades before expanding once more.

The first commercial ships began to launch from Earth. Some decided to start their own colonies, though these were not given the large assistance Command gave the official colonies, although they were still protected as long as they remained within the settled upon Tau'ri borders, and no-one was stupid enough to leave the borders entirely.

There had been dozens of attempted terrorist bombings, all but one of which were stopped by quick-acting transportation technology. That one success resulted in even more power given to the Command to take out the terrorist organizations.

Meanwhile, the Jaffa had begun to turn their eyes outwards, thinking of expanding their borders beyond the stargate system. They entered a joint effort with the Reform to create a large telescope station dubbed Honorable Light. The small structure began to take pictures of stars within the next sector.

It quickly found some points of interest.

"That… makes no sense." A Prior said, looking at the chart.

A Jaffa furrowed her brow. "It appears… as if the star is orbiting this planet."

"The shape is too off to be a planet, it looks a bit oblong. Perhaps an ancient structure?"

"Got another one!" A Reform engineer said, laying out another star chart. "See this? This is most definitely a planet, but this star seems to be moving around it at irregular speeds! This makes even less sense!"

The Prior leaned in close. "They are a bit too far away for Ha'tak to reach easily… we will send one of our ships to investigate-"

"Uh…" The engineer said, looking sheepish. "All of our ships are currently assigned. I don't think we can afford to just send them out to investigate-"

"Then we ask the Tau'ri." The Jaffa said. "They should be able to arrive within a week at most."

[][][][][[][][][][][][][]

A green ship hovered at the edge of space, invisible to most sensors.

The developments of the sector were…. concerning to the occupants.

The Goa'uld had stayed quiet and never left the sector of the Galaxy since the gate system didn't go elsewhere (as far as they knew). But these new players, the Jaffa, the Tau'ri, and the rarely seen Reform seemed keen on going beyond the gate system and exploring a bit more.

And that was something the occupants of the green craft would not stand for. Their empire must remain safe.

They needed to find a way to upset the balance of the region… They needed to find a way to assure supremacy…

The opportunity would come, they just had to wait for it.

[][][][][[][][][][][][][]

"Daniel Jackson."

Daniel looked up from his paper, surprised to see a member of the Nox in his office. "Lya?"

"Yes, it's me." She smiled warmly. "Nice to see you."

"I- I mean it's nice to see you too but Nox rarely leave Gaia. You must be here to tell me something."

"Of course." Lya said, taking a seat. "I'm here to make sure you don't inform anyone of our world's location."

Daniel blinked. "I think the Jaffa already know. At least Jaffa close to Teal'c-"

"We are aware of this, and have send a delegate to them as well." She frowned. "The Nox have decided that we do not wish to become involved with galactic affairs, even if the galaxy is rebounding from its decay once more. We want to live in peace, and we would have appreciated it if you didn't even acknowledge our existence, but that is impossible given our place in galactic history. We were just too influential."

"I will make sure we adhere to your wishes." Daniel said, frowning. "You don't agree with the choice to remain isolationist do you?"

"No." Lya said. "I thought it was time for us to come back out into the open, to help the galaxy form another great alliance, complete with the wisdom we gained from the first one. But I suppose that was not meant to be. You are not the fifth race, nor will you ever be. But you are the newfirst race of the Second Great Alliance." She looked deep into his eyes, almost as if she was looking into his soul. "Unite this galaxy. The cosmos need order once more, disarray has existed for far too long."

"…we'll try."

"I know you will." Lya said, then she stood up and began to walk away. "I'm not sure if you will see me again."

Daniel nodded. "I understand."

"Goodbye, Daniel Jackson. Tell O'Neill I came by."

[][][][][[][][][][][][][]

"Heloooo Campers!" O'Neill yelled over the comm of the Enterprise. "Guess what time it is!"

"Muffin time?" Vala said to no-one in particular.

"It's time to boldly go where no man has gone before! The science boys want to send us off into an area of space that doesn't make much sense. Apparently we have to instances of star-like objects orbiting something solid and planet-like. Or something, all this technical jargon is getting to me, and it's even worse than when Carter does it."

Layton presumed that was probably because the scientists had no idea what the mysterious locations they were headed to were, and that all the technical jargon was really just them throwing guesses into the dark.

"So buckle up buttercups, in a few days we'll be out of explored space and into the unknown! Won't that be fun?"

Cam shrugged. Maybe it would be, maybe it wouldn't.

"Could you pass me that screwdriver?" Doctor Lee asked Cam. Cam sighed and complied.

One year had passed from declassification.

The world - and the nearby cosmos - were at peace.

The Earth's unrest had, for the most part, calmed down. The nations for the first time all wanted to work together. Though much of this goodwill was probably spurred by dramatic economic growth and an increase in technology, the future still looked bright. There was even talk of giving the UN and the Command more power, to make Earth more of a single nation in the cosmos, though this was a far off dream to say the least.

After several dozen busts, the Lucian Alliance calmed down on their aggression - for the time being. They sat quiet, resentment brewing.

Relations improved with the Tellarites, never seemed to change with the Vulcans, and didn't seem to go well with the Andorians. For whatever reason the Andorians found the Jaffa, Tau'ri, and Reform all insulting for their mere existence, and nobody really knew why.

And the Enterprise sailed into the unknown…

 _ **WARP SECTOR**_

On the other side of the galaxy, there was an area of space that could only be described as completely grimdark, crapsack, and just a horrible place to even think about. This are of the galaxy was known as the Warp Regions, marking the section of the galaxy where a nightmare known as the Warp was extremely influential. All of the races within the Warp Regions suffered from a curse: a structure known as the Eye of Chaos would spurt out alien beings known as Daemons, bent on corrupting and destroying everything around them in nightmarish crusades. But the horror of Chaos did not end there, for every being within the Warp Regions had a chance of becoming tempted by the forces of chaos, the evils spouted by the four Chaos Gods seeping into their minds and driving them into devout followers with promises of power, magic, life, pleasure, and knowledge if only they would spread Chaos to others. Every last sentient being could be corrupted and mutated, turning them into a husk of their former selves.

It only gets worse from there. The Eldar, an ancient race who think themselves enlightened, are split into two camps: the true Eldar who truly are enlightened, but distance themselves from the other races, and the Dark Eldar who are devout followers of Chaos and require torture to live - preferably torture of other races. Then there are the Orks, sentient fungus who have a power which allows them to make things that have no business working… work. If they believe a broken gun will fire, it will. If they believe their armor makes them faster it does. Their utter stupidity actually assists them in their goals: they have no reason to think things they pick up won't work. They are able to come together in large groups and make large spaceships in order to launch attacks known as WAAAAAAGHs onto the other races. Across the Warp Regions, planets built by an ancient race known as the Necrons have awoken, introducing a mechanical race bent on controlling the area of space they view as theirs. Which encompasses the entire Warp Regions.

Humanity in this area of space are a bunch of xenophobic paranoid military types who worship their dying God-Emperor as he sits on the Golden Throne, determined to exterminate all other races in the galaxy (including chaos) all in the name of their survival. They are at war with every single faction within the area of space, firm in their belief that all xenos - and those influenced by xenos - must die. On the complete opposite of the spectrum is the Tau, an accepting race that believe in sacrificing everything for "the greater good," though the greater good is completely subject to what the leaders say it is at any given time. In a vast contrast to every other power in the galaxy, they may actually seek out diplomacy and partnership with other races, and already have a small federation of sorts.

Lastly, a swarm of biological-adapting buts known as Tyranids have come from across the Galactic Rim, swarming into the space of every major power in the area, eating whatever they can come across and adapting it for their own uses. Nothing seems to deter them from their goals.

For the last several decades, these powers have continually warred with each other nonstop. There is only war in the Warp Realms, after all.

And a couple years ago things just got more complicated. An Ori Incursion into the sector became active in between Ork and Imperium of Man space, ready to spread the religion of Origin to all races in the area, by force if necessary.

Success has been minimal. The arrival of Priors on several of the worlds by stargate was generally met with hostility. There had been minor successes with some of the more sane Necron, the Eldar,far removed Human colonies, and the Tau, but aside form these small victory all Priors of Origin were simply stamped out or kicked off the planet, even after showcasing their powers. Apparently the people of this galaxy continually lived in fear and couldn't really be motivated by simple threats, and following up on those threats usually just motivated them to fight back further.

And after the first wave of Ori sent to the lands deep in Chaos returned mutated and traitorous, there were no further attempts to do anything to the Eye.

In fact all they had really managed to accomplish large-scale was reveal the existence (and use) of the stargates to the area. The Eldar, Tau, Necron, and Dark Eldar using it for their own goals after a few years of experimentation, and the Imperium quickly destroying every last gate they could find. And then there were the Orks, who somehow managed to dial to whatever gate they desired even if they typed in the wrong address.

Essentially the Ori had just added to the chaos.

And to put icing on the cake, the Imperium of Man had just launched a fleet directly at the Supergate, having discovered it's location somehow.

Roughly one-hundred Ori ships had been accumulating in front of the supergate for the last few months, preparing for the fight. Aside from a few conflicts with the Orks and outlying Imperium territory, they had yet to actually fight in a full on battle.

They really didn't know what to expect, but they set out to meet the Imperium far from their ring while a few other ships stayed behind as a last line of defense.

Kalin, the Prior in charge of the fleet, was apprehensive. He did not like wars on ships, his powers did not extend far enough to have any lasting or large effect among the stars. He had to simply control the ship using his powers and do his best to coordinate everything.

He also knew that the enemy forces numbered only about twenty, thanks to them passing near a planet which had a stargate on it. So at least they had the advantage of numbers. Though considering the reported size of the ships, they probably didn't have the advantage in sheer size.

No matter, the Ori would protect them and see them through on their mission. They would be victorious.

They would meet them in less than a day…

[][][][][[][][][][][][][]

Early on in the M42, a new threat to the Imperium of Man was forming on the border of Ork territory and the Imperium proper. It was a new WAAAGH! that was shaping up to be one of the largest ever in the history of Mankind. This WAAAGH!, known as WAAAGH! BoneKrakah after it's Warlord, had already decimated several minor hive worlds and the systems they were in and was still growing in size. In an attempt to stop it's rapid growth and get it to handle itself, Inquisitors of the Ordo Xenos plotted to kill Warlord BoneKrakah thus throwing the WAAAGH! into chaos as it's participants fought amongst them selves for control. By the time they had finally decided on a plan of action, gathered a strike force, and arrived in the WAAAGH!'s last known location they were too late to do anything. A warp storm had occurred in the area and damaged many Ork ships. Some were destroyed and others, such as BoneKrakah's personal Spacey Hulk, were sucked into the warp. The infighting they had aimed to cause was already occurring and it looked like this problem would be quickly sorted. In a way they were right about that. The danger the WAAAGH! posed to the Imperium had passed but the WAAAGH! it self was not entirely over. It had just been moved elsewhere.

The Warp was an unsettling place, even for a species as dumb and fearless as the Orks. Not scary or terrifying mind you, just unsettling. All of it's strange eldritch effects and myriad of inhabitants seemingly challenging the Orks to a contest of who can be the most destructive was just downright un-Orky. Nobody is as good at wrecking things and killing as the Orks. At the moment none of them were even around to start a good scrap and the warp itself was rather calm which just made the whole place a huge purple bore fest. Needless to say, Warlord BoneKrakah wanted out as soon as possible and requested as such from the head Mek Boy. When he learned from the stupid git that the warp drives were busted and they couldn't leave the boring purple hell hole and get into a nice scrap until it was repaired. Brimming with rage, BoneKrakah announced his intention to replace the git by ripping his face off with his Power Klaw. After, making his displeasure known, he settled in to pass the time by getting into a good scrap with some of the Boyz.

Several hours and about a hundred dead Boyz later, the warp drive was finally repaired. Upon exiting the Warp, Bonekrakah and his crew immediately began looking for something to smash and found a nice little planet covered in greenery with a shattered moon. It looked almost completely untainted by civilization aside from a few medium sized settlements. After assessing it and the other nearby planets for a few moments, BoneKrakah decided that while there didn't appear to be many things to loot or people to kill it was better then nothing. With a deafening WAAAGH!, a collision course was set for the fiercest looking continent the planet had to offer. The one that kinda looked like a dragon or something equally vicious.

The tremors caused by the crafts impact were felt in the kingdom of Mistral. This event, which would later be known by the natives as the Great Tremor, damaged many buildings and marked the 1st extraterrestrial incursion to ever occur on Remnant.

Commadore Edwin gritted his teeth.

He hated the Ori with a passion. Granted, he hated all xenos with a passion, but with the Ori it was particularly vicious. He could identify with the other foes. The Orks enjoyed battle, the Tyranids wanted food, the Necrons wanted space, and the Dark Eldar had a desire to see others suffer. Even the peaceful desires of the Tau and Eldar resonated somewhere within Edwin's hateful soul.

But the Ori… Edwin had no understanding of the Ori. Why spread your religion? WHY? A religion was true only for man! The only religion as the religion of the God-Emperor, and xenos didn't deserve any part of that! Who did these idiots think they were insulted the Imperium by suggesting their Emperor was not God and that the true "gods" would give them lives of peace? Who wanted a boring life of peace and service anyway? WHO?

The Commadore smashed his hand into the dashboard, destroying it. His crew jumped.

"We are going to annihilate these insulting xenos for the glory of the EMPEROR!" He roared.

His crew paused, than began to cheer.

"Incoming ships detected!"

Edwin blinked. They were coming to meet them?Every other encounter with the Ori ships had ended with them fleeing. Granted, their ships seemed somewhat small compared-

"Numbering about a hundred!"

Ah, there it is. They had amassed a fleet. Edwin grinned. This would be very satisfying.

"PREPARE WEAPONS! GET IN FORMATION! We are going to drive these pathetic whelps into the ground for DARING to go against our Emperor. ONWARDS!"

The fleets met, and all hell broke loose.

The Ori ships had the stronger weapons and shields, and they were also more maneuverable. The single laser was able to pierce Imperium shields after three or four hits, burrowing into the think hull of the kilometers-long ships.

However, unlike virtually every other ship the Ori encountered, an Imperium warship did not blow up after their shields were breached. They kept going. And firing. And blasting.

It became obvious that the single-cannon design of the Ori ships was rather inadequate as the sheer amount of weapons lining the warships were astounding. The Ori ships outnumbered the Imperium - but they were obviously outgunned.

Edwin grinned. Powerful, yes. Smart, no. These Ori would be easy to take care of. Just destroy the giant ring, he'd been told, and they'd never hear from them again.

On the other side of the battle, Kalin roared as shields on dozens of Ori ships failed, and the entire crews were promptly disintegrated. "RETREAT!" He yelled.

"But the Ori will protect us in battle-"

The Prior turned the offending man into dust. One of the bonuses of working near the Warp was that he could easily say he detected Warp corruption inside anyone he burnt without fear of being called out on it. He really really hated when people tried to go against him.

"I SAID RETREAT!"

The Ori ships turned back, running essentially with their tails tucked between their legs. Edwin laughed a hearty laugh. They may be faster - but they had nowhere to fall back to but their large ring structure.

He had lost only four ships in that engagement. They had lost eighty. He liked those numbers.

"PURSUE THEM!" He yelled, passion in his voice. "LET'S MAKE THEM REGRET EVER LIVING."

The chase was on, though it would not be resolved for several days.

[][][][][[][][][][][][][]

The ascended Ori were concerned. They were losing the engagement in the Warp Realms, and with the only one other active incursion, they really didn't want to have only one foothold in the galaxy.

But their forces were being destroyed, and the Ori knew improving their tactics, weapons, and designs could only go so far. They couldn't just make ships out of nothing, they needed the resources to transmute. It was extremely annoying, there was an entire galaxy they could gain worshipers from and they were quickly realizing that it may not actually be possible to subjugate the galaxy. After all, the Alterans were keeping them from interfering directly.

"There may be a way around that." One of the Ori said, a being by the name of Ifrit. "I have just received intel from our deep Warp probes."

"As have the rest of us." Orin, defacto "leader" of the Ori Sec Cluster. "The Warp Gods are beings higher than us, as was feared, making it insurmountably difficult to contend with them. How is that a way around the Alteran problem?"

"You see…." Ifrit said, twirling his flaming non-corporeal appendage. 'The Alterans couldn't be anywhere the Warp Gods influence is without being noticed and talked to. And you know how much they hate being talked to, or even acknowledged. And beings that might declare war on them would be a no-no. So…"

"…they may not actually be in that area!" Firla said, grinning evilly. "Even if they are watching the sector, they couldn't mess with us without attracting the attention of the Warp Gods and triggering a possible retaliation! BRILLIANT!"

"This is a stretch." Orin said, frowning. "Tzeentch and his followers are likely already aware of the Alterans."

"The Alterans are wimps and you know it. They wouldn't even go within five hundred light years of anything that could affect them. You know how the Q scare them."

Orin nodded. "How would we test this theory?"

"Easy." Ifrit said. "Go through the supergate ourselves and see what happens."

"Are you volunteering?" Orin leered.

"Absolutely!"

Orin was not expecting this response.

"Then by all means, go on through, and tell us what you find."

"My pleasure."

Ifrit was gone in a flash of fire.

"If we can enter…" FIrla began.

"I know. It will mean we can actually do something there. Perhaps we can ascend to the higher level these chaos gods are at. Perhaps the populace in the warp can give us enough power to fight the Alterans directly. The possibilities are exciting. I shall contact Cluster Ter with this information should it turn out to be true."

"…are we ever going to try and figure out what happened to Cluster Pri?"

"No." Orin said, flatly.

[][][][][[][][][][][][][]

Ifrit arrived through the supergate, feeling enthralled (and slightly nervous) at actually being in the galaxy. Surrounded by stars. It was beautiful.

It made him want to go conquering.

He sent a pulse out to all the Priors, announcing his presence. They all bowed instantly. He let out a pleased "sigh" as the power of worship flooded into him.

Then he got serious. There was a fleet of Imperium ships on the way.

Time to show them the true power of the Ori.

He experimented. He used a fair amount of his energy to completely fix some of the damaged ships that were arriving.

There was no retaliation.

He laughed, his fiery non corporeal body lighting up the supergate in a red glow.

It was time!

Edwin gripped the newly fixed terminal with zeal. They had just dropped out of Warp and were approaching the ring. It was rather hard to miss, its glow shining for a good million kilometers.

"Let's destroy it boys-"

"Commadore! Unidentified object detected among the Ori ships!"

Edwin glared. "Identify-"

"Pulsing energy, appears to be flames. Power levels are off the charts!"

 **"** **INDEED, MORTAL."** A voice boomed through all of their minds. **"** **I AM IFRIT OF THE ORI, AND IN MY INFINITE MERCY I OFFER YOU ONE LAST CHANCE TO CONVERT TO ORIGIN, OR DIE."**

Edwin paused for a moment. So the Ori gods actually did exist. That was unexpected. He growled, this may complicate matters…

But he couldn't really turn around now could he? That would be betraying the Emperor. "Focus all fire on Ifrit. I want to show these people how "gods" die."

The warships opened fire, focusing all their energy on Ifrit. Ifrit was mildly surprised to find that they tickled. If he remained in the same spot and took it for another ten minutes they might actually do some damage. Well it was time to put a stop to that.

Focusing his power, Ifrit caused one of the warships to implode, showering the area in a shower of sparks. Still no response from the Alterans. He laughed, though he did feel the energy that was drained from him. It was no small task to simply rip a ship to shreds. He could probably only do it about a hundred times.

However, there were a lot less than a hundred ships here. Might as well make a show out of it.

He twisted one of the ships in half, lit three on impossible fire, and caused two to smash into each other. He made sure the mortals on those ships could hear his laughter, but made sure his followers heard no such evil joy.

For he did have an image to keep up.

He exploded ship after ship with ever-increasing flair and grandeur. Soon, only one ship remained.

Ifrit disabled it's weapons before manifesting himself on the bridge. He dropped the deep voice.

"Commadore Edwin, how nice to meet you."

Edwin roared "FILTHY XENO!" He rushed at the fiery aura, passing right through it.

"Do you honestly think a simple weapon would do something to me when a small fleet did absolutely nothing?"

"The Emperor will destroy you!"

"Your Emperor is outnumbered. I am far from the only Ori, Commadore."

Edwin tried to cut up Ifrit again, with no success.

"I do not expect you to convert to Origin Edwin. At least not yet, but I do have a mission for you."

"I WOULD RATHER DIE!"

"That is not an option here. You are simply to return to Imperium space and report what has happened here."

"I WILL NEVER FLEE-"

"Your ship has been set to fly back to Imperium space and I doubt you will be able to hack my encryptions before you actually get back."

Edwin glowered. "You… you dare?"

"Yes I dare. Now good luck, xeno-tainted Commadore." Ifrit burnt the mark of the Ori right on Edwin's left arm, chuckling. "Have fun."

Then Ifrit was gone, and the ship left.

 **"** **WE ARE VICTORIOUS MY PEOPLE!"**

Cheers of Worship. DELICIOUS worship.

[][][][][[][][][][][][][]

The Eldar Farseer paled.

The futures had just gotten a lot more bleak. And he didn't think they could get any more bleak.

Before this, most futures ended in Tyranid Infestetion or Chaos Control. Or sometimes both. Virtually nothing aside from those futures were visible.

And now the Ori had arrived.

The Eldar saw many possibilities. Ori domination, control over places the Eldar didn't know even existed. Ori falling to Chaos, turning the entire area into a wasteland of warp energies. Ori defeating chaos and using it for their own ends, subjugating the entire galaxy.

The Eldar trembled, praying to no-one in particular that there would at least be some hope. He reached out extremely far, straining his mind as far as he could. He looked beyond - where more Eldar feared to tread. He saw horrors- a race of rocks subjugating worlds slowly, a race of biomechanics hybrids converting the entire galaxy, and wars. So many wars. Some wars of which he couldn't even comprehend with his puny mind…

He wept for the future of the Galaxy.

[][][][][[][][][][][][][]

The government of Mistral was worried. What few colonies existed on the continent of Wyvern were slowly going dark one after another. What little information they had suggested that a horde of strange green Grimm were overtaking every town on southern Wyvern, slowly making their way towards the ocean separating the planet's two continents.

Normally this wouldn't be a problem and would just be ignored by the government as it wasn't their responsibility to provide security for the inhabitants of that cursed continent. However, they had some non-expendable resources there in the form of a few dust mines that weren't operated by the Schnee Dust company. The Mistralian government preferred those mines working to provide the kingdom with it's dust supplies so they didn't have to rely on the outside sources usually controlled by Atlasian companies. With this in mind, they sent a team of elite soldiers and Huntsmen to divert and/or destroy the horde before it closed in on the valuable dust mines.

These Huntsmen planned to set the explosive ambush in an abandoned settlement on the projected path of the horde. Contact was lost soon afterwards and a second team was sent to ascertain the status of the first - they too went dark.

Sensing a pattern, the Mistral finally decided to deploy actual troopers, mech units, and whatever huntsmen they could get on such sort notice to defend they mines from the incoming horde. The land surrounding the mines was quickly cleared of foliage to make it easier hit the Grimm since the creatures usually charged the humans with no regard for self preservation. The troops defending the mines quickly cobbled together a solid defensive line and then waited for the horde to show itself.

They heard the enemy long before they saw them. Engines where heard roaring in the distance, increasing in volume with each passing second. The sound of thousands of cacophonous voices and the occasional burst of rifle fire or explosion growing ever louder. By the time the supposed horde of Grimm exited the distant treeline, the defender's were taken almost completely aback by confusion. They were fighting some sort of new Grimm weren't they? That had to be it. There was no one in the world who wanted to break the relatively new and delicate peace that had settled over the land - aside from maybe the White Fang, but there was no way that the Fang had enough vehicles and members to make a cacophony such as this.

When the oncoming horde of strange creatures entered the vision of the assembled defenders, the confusion they felt was multiplied tenfold. What manner of creatures were they seeing!?. they were missing the bone mask that the Grimm were known for, ruling out them being an unknown type of Grimm - but at the same time they most certainly weren't human or fanus with their bright green skin and imposing stature. Upon sighting the defenders, the greenskins let out a deafening chorus of WAAAGH! and charged towards the mines turning the locals confusion into panic and terror.

The Orks' ramshackle vehicles were the first to reach the Mistralian lines. As they smashed through the barricades they deposited a number of Boyz armed mostly with clubs but a few had shootas. They quickly engaged the many troops and mechs making up the defending force in a brutal combat. Things seemed like they could go either way for some time.

Then the main group of Orks hit. Not long after over half of the organic soldiers in the original Mistralian fighting force were killed outright and the mechs hardly fared any better. Blood, body parts, and hot lead flew through the air in equal amounts. It looked like the defending force was doomed to be slaughtered to the last man by the oncoming tide of green Orks.

Then the Huntsmen finally got off their asses and began to cut a bloody swathe through the horde. Seeing the Huntsmen rallied the remaining troops and they began to push back against the Ork tide. It took most of the day, but by the end most of the Mistralian forces were dead but the Ork raiding party had been destroyed.

This marked the first of a series of engagements against the Orks by Remnant's citizens.

[][][][][[][][][][][][][]

Over the course of the year, several Ori moved into the Warp sectors, ready to lay waste and to convert all they found. The focused the majority of their efforts on the Imperium of Man itself, making sure the "dominant" power of the realm knew exactly who was boss. They weren't listening, but that didn't matter: they would eventually.

They had the power to destroy them, and even their biggest weapons couldn't do anything more than slightly tickle them. The empires of the Warp would fall.

An Ori by the name of Orilek began to laugh. "All will fall! All will fall before us!"

The others were a tad concerned that Orilek was getting a tad overzealous.


	3. T-MINUS 249 YEARS

_**T-MINUS 249 YEARS**_

 _ **EARTH SECTOR**_

 _ **(ORBSyndicate)**_

O'Neill had expected excitement, adventure, and new things. He had pulled a lot of strings to be allowed to go on this exploration mission - and he was only allowed to go since the entire sector was in peace and there wasn't really a sign of war unless the Lucians decided to be _really_ stupid.

And this was the _sixth_ system they had been to in this new sector of space - just as dead as the others barren wastelands. Not even any ruins on these worlds.

He was really itching to get to the two anomalies the science boys had found, but of course that was over a month away since they just _had_ to stop in virtually every system they found to take scans and things. It was annoying.

O'Neill sighed. "You have the bridge Archer. I'm getting some shuteye." The General left the bridge, leaving Captain Archer in charge. Archer shrugged, getting comfortable in his big chair. He could understand what the General was feeling: he himself had been expecting some excitement.

As of yet, the only excitement was to see the Prior, Cero, do the occasional parlor tricks with his powers out of sheer boredom. Archer liked Cero, even if he was a bit meditative and mysterious, like a strange zen master. The man knew how to show off and improve spirits.

Archer was not really a fan of the other members of the "exchange program" the races of the sector had started. There was the Jaffa, Jer'll. She was fiery, grumpy, and starting to get really stir crazy. Archer was concerned she'd go berserk if she had a few more days without action.

Then there was T'Pol, the Vulcan. Archer didn't get her. He didn't get any Vulcans, so that wasn't saying much. She was calculating, quiet, and at least appeared to be very calm. She liked to offer advice when anyone would let her, but she mostly kept to herself. Even Cero had said she was hard to figure out, and he had managed to calm Jer'll on multiple occasions.

Archer sighed, getting more comfortable in his chair as the only two people who were actually having any sort of fun on this voyage walked into the room.

"We have found something most interesting." Layton said, adjusting his hat.

Archer smiled. "What do I need to scan?"

"Nothing, actually." Doctor Lee said. "We actually found something and we'd like to go down and look at it."

"What is it?" Archer asked.

"A stargate."

Archer stood up. "SG-1 has permission to transport to the surface in suits. Report what you see as soon as you are down."

"Yes Captain." Layton said, leading Lee away.

[][][][]

Cam looked at the team of five.

Lee was okay, if obviously not the kind to want to see combat. He and Layton were currently scouring the large black ring that was obviously a different design of stargate, most likely this sector's design of the Alteran device. Aside from being black, this stargate had less symbols: only sixteen blue glyphs, all but one of which had no corners in their shape. Cam was willing to bet the pointy one was the point of origin, but didn't want to say anything in case he was wrong. Which was possible, given how counterintuitive these machines tended to get.

The stargate and it's similar-designed DHD were the only things on this desolate wasteland of a planet. Wasn't even an atmosphere here.

Vala was grumbling about how this suit wasn't fashionable in any way.

"Vala, you and I both know you're complaining about it because it's just uncomfortable."

"What? How dare you-"

Jer'll broke the silence. "THIS IS RIDICULOUS!" She waved her hands around. "There's nothing here, nothing to fight, nothing even to butt heads against! There's no obstacle! We just sit here while top hat boy and beardy here look at this gate for hours! Why am I even here?"

"There are two issues with that statement miss Jer'll." Layton responded, still at work on the stargate. "First of all, we have only been here for ninety minutes, not even two hours. Secondly, I do not have my hat on at the moment due to being in a spacesuit."

"And we're done." Lee said. "The gate here is fully operational and we would just have to press the DHD to dial anywhere in the sector. Since we don't know any addresses that's useless right now, but I believe we can take this gate with us. Nobody's using it."

"Why do we need more gates on board? We've already got a dozen loaded." Cam asked.

"Because this runs on the system of this sector. When the Ancients designed the system they separated the gate network into nine sectors, and going from one sector to another would take the power of a ZPM, as you know from going to the wraith sector. If we could lay a trail of gates from one sector into another sector, however, it would make it easier to get around."

"…Why didn't we do that with the Wraith sector?"

"Because it's really far away and you'd have to lay gates through the Core. The gate system is only designed to function a little beyond their sector borders due to stellar drift, I think maybe we could stretch each sector by a hundred to a thousand light years depending on how we do it."

"Ah." Cam said, nodding.

Jer'll twitched. "We're going back onto the ship _already?"_

"I thought you were bored." Cam snarked.

Jer'll just glared at him, but managed not to draw her weapon and blast the Colonel.

Within a few minutes, SG-1, the stargate, and the DHD were gone.

[][][][][][][][][]

In Tau'ri Alliance space, the engineering world of Langara had just launched another ship. The Deadalus-Class Renderer brought the Tau'ri's military up to twenty-four Deadalus class ships. The military was far from numerous, even if you counted the weaker Hebridan ships which only numbered about fifty. In a direct conflict with a larger army, they would no doubt loose. The Jaffa could easily plow through them, and the Reform stood about even. The Vulcans, Andorians, and Tellarites were obviously weaker, but they did have more numbers. If they banded together they might be able to do something.

Carter took relief in knowing that they were not that likely to bond together to attack the Tau'ri, given that the Vulcans and Tellarites were at least mostly peaceful. Though it was a two-sided coin: they didn't get along, and while it wasn't a threat it was a little sad to see that there still wasn't peace. Sure, no wars, but there was obvious tension between them.

She was glad the Jaffa and the Reform had managed to get along so well. She supposed this was because they had both recently overthrown god-posing masters.

She sat back in her chair, looking at the hundreds of RnD projects before her.

Which one should she read this time…

"Research into Wraith technology improvements."

Carter flipped the file open, reading about the Wraith and their attempts to improve their technology. The Wraith had proven to be rather tenacious if the situation called for it, the conflict in that sector _still_ not resolved. With five Deadalus-Class ships and an Reform ship positioned in the sector, Carter had hoped the tides of the war would turn. Instead, the Wraith had just improved their shields and had taken to more stealthy tactics, and were figuring out how to maximize the life-force they drained.

There was the horror story of one of the Priors assigned to the Wraith war getting drained by some kind of mechanically-enhanced Wraith. The Wraith in question went through three dozen marines before another Prior managed to stop it. The Wraith were clever, Carter had to admit.

She frowned. No easy solution presented itself, they didn't have enough resources to just pound the Wraith into the ground just yet.

It was most concerning…

[][][][][][][][][][]

"Explain." O'Neill said.

"Er…" Doctor Lee said, frozen in place.

"Doctor…"

"Well… Er…."

"Doctor the object before me is shattering my perceptions of reality. Please lessen the damage before I go clinically insane and enter a murderous rampage."

"General-"

"I cannot be held accountable for what I'm about to do next since I'm pleading insanity. What is it?"

Lee got very quiet, looking at "it." "It" was a gigantic turtle the size of a planet, floating through space with four elephants evidentially standing upon its back, and a disc of land positioned atop the backs of the elephants. There were continents, oceans, villages, cities, and mountains on the disc. Orbiting the giant turtle was a small star obviously too small to achieve fusion.

The moon was the only thing in the system that seemed to obey the laws of normalcy. Layton frowned before offering up an explanation.

"There are numerous tales about the World Turtle in earth mythology, and elephants are prevalent in the Hindu creation myth. Given the mythological aspects in many structures across the cosmos, perhaps this is an Aletran experiment that has factored into our current tales?"

O'Neill blinked. "Yep, you're a friend of Daniel's all right." He turned to Lee. "Well, that's satisfied me for now. Let's check the place out. Transport down near a large city, see what's up."

SG-1 hopped to it, completely unaware of what they were about to find.

[][][][][]

Sam Vines, commander of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch, had seen many things in his day. Dragons, werewolves, flying carriages, ancient cube devices from before the dawn of time - you name it, he'd probably seen it at one time or another.

And in his experience, he had developed an eye for people he should probably be paying attention to. This was an astounding skill in a city where there were trolls, dwarves, zombies, and all sorts of other creatures that seemed unusual but were just ordinary people going about their daily business.

Not these five he was looking at though. They were here with a purpose in mind, though he suspected even they weren't completely sure if their purpose made any sense in a city like Ankh-Morpork.

There was the one who was obviously in charge, a middle aged human man who seemed a bit lost at the moment, responding to the other members of the group in a joking matter, indicating that his position as leader wasn't really taken all that seriously among the group. But he was the one pointing at people (seeming to take the most interest in a passing Troll) and leading the group. He had an object slung around his wrist - it looked similar to a gonne, but given the fact that the man wasn't shooting up the place, Vimes was confident that at the very least it wasn't murderous, though he would make sure to have Nobby watch it very closely.

Closest to a man was a woman who would obviously fit in with the Thieves' Guild. She had the pretty persuading looks, complete with an air of intelligence. She was obviously prodding the leader for something, Vimes expected permission to go out and rob/buy something. Possibly both.

Then there were the two "smart" people. The bearded one in the glasses had the demeanor of a wizard, albeit without the pointy hat and robes, and instead some kind of white coat. The other one was a bit harder to read, the face under the top hat in a constant state of observation and thought. Vimes frowned at this. The thoughtful ones were dangerous.

And there was the woman behind them who was probably something not-fully human who seemed to really want to punch something.

Then he saw the thoughtful one point at him.

 _The thoughtful ones were always dangerous…_ Vimes thought to himself.

The leader walked up to them. "Good day, now, me and my team have discerned-"

"It was Layton's idea Cam." The sly woman remarked.

Cam continued on, ignoring her. "-that you may be in a position to tell us what exactly this place is."

Vimes raised an eyebrow. Wasn't often he saw someone who'd no clue what Ankh-Morpork was. "This is Ankh-Morpork, largest city on the Disc." He leaned on a wall. "Now tell me, who are you and where did you come from?"

Cam shrugged. "Explorers. Far, far away."

Vimes knew a vague answer when he saw one. What surprised him was that it seemed like this was a vague answer this Cam fellow was _used_ to using. Like he had been asked this question a million times.

Vimes squinted his eyes. "Where specifically?"

Cam broke out in a grin. "Auburn, Kansans."

Vimes twitched. Telling a truth that Vimes obviously wasn't going to understand. Vimes was quickly losing patience. "And where, pray tell, is Auburn?"

"Somewhere over the rainbow."

The smart one in a top hat sighed. "Cam, we have no need to lead this man on a wild goose chase with our minds. We have no need to be secretive here - it's just like any other world we visit. It has inhabitants, some of which are human, others not. We've told hundreds of peoples over the years where we are from without hesitation."

Cam shrugged. "Professor, can't you let a guy have a little fun for once?"

Vimes glared. "If you had continued evading my questions I would have found someway to arrest you. I'm Commander Vimes of the City Watch.

The sly woman snorted. "Good luck boys, getting us involved with a big name. How about now we go anger the local king by telling him paradoxical statements about potatoes?"

Cam sighed. "I regret introducing you to video games."

Vala giggled. Vimes leaned in. "So who are you people really?"

Cam stood up tall, attempting to look more dignified. "I am Colonel Cameron Mitchell, commanding officer of the first contact and exploration team SG-1. Our job essentially boils down to exploring worlds, meeting new people, and fighting nasty space aliens whenever they crop up."

"Don't forget solving ancient mysteries." Layton reminded.

"And discovering new technologies." Lee added.

"And meeting hot men!" Vala grinned.

Jer'll muttered something about a lack of explosions.

Vimes arched an eyebrow. "And what world exactly do you come from?"

"It's a round place called Earth." Layton responded. "Well, Jer'll here's from a world known as Chulak, which is also round."

Vimes blinked, thought about asking how they stayed on the round worlds, saw the look in Lee's eye, and wisely kept his mouth shut. He hated long winded explanations of things that didn't matter. He hated long winded explanations that did matter too, even more so because he actually had to listen to them.

"So we'd like to know more about your world." Cam continued. "Usually this involves meeting a leader or someone of high stature. Do you qualify?"

Vimes saw the opportunity to dump them on the Patrician and took it.

"Lord Ventari will be most interested to see you. I can get you an audience. Now excuse me I have to go arrest that troll for destroying the bakery."

SG-1 watched as Vimes walked up to the troll and arrested him without anything going thud. It was impressive to say the least.

[][][][][][][][][][]

Lord Ventari had wondered when this day would come.

The wizards had often pointed out that most of the things they saw around other stars through their telescopes were round, and that some force known as gravity was keeping them in check, theoretically meaning other civilizations could develop all over the place.

And given the existence of the Cubes, it was rather obvious that there _were_ others out there. When one combined that fact with the apparent rarity of World Turtles, well….

It was only a matter of time until someone looked at the Discworld and decided that it warranted further investigation. Which was exactly what had happened here.

At least the people sitting across from the table were more or less amiable towards him at the moment.

"I take it you're Lord Ventari?" Cam asked.

"I am, and I suppose I am here to answer your questions, and you mine. Given the fact that you are the ones who came into my city, perhaps I deserve some answers first. Vimes already told me the rather incomplete information you gave him, and I wish for more details. You obviously had to arrive on a craft of some kind, or else you have some kind of superior teleportation. Let's start there."

Lee ended up being the one to explain the position of the Enterprise as well as the use of Stargates. Ventari managed to keep up with what the doctor was saying, even though it was dumbed down somewhat.

"Interesting…" He responded. "How long until the Disc crosses into your sector of space?"

"Well you'll enter the Stargate sector in about ten years, but you're close enough that you could hook up to it given the correct technology."

Ventari stood up to look out the window. "You have stargates to spare, I can tell. You intend to give it to us as long as we agree to be trade partners."

Layton blinked. This Ventari was a shrewd partner. "Why yes, that's the general idea for virtually everyone we come across. Though usually they already have a gate on their world. Yours does not."

"As far as you know, at least." Ventari responded, continuing to look at Ankh-Morpork. "Take a look out this window. What do you see?"

"I see a dog urinating on a tower covered in graffiti." Vala commented.

Ventari sighed, thinking once more that the unusual beauty of Ankh-Morpork was lost on everyone.

"An opportunity. Progress." Layton answered a few seconds later, mildly surprising Layton. "I've taken time to observe your city, Patrician, and while it seems dirty and haphazard at many places, the people appear to actually be happy and appreciate their lives for the most part. The many different kinds of peoples living here live in relative harmony, and we have seen many modern conveniences in town that don't exist elsewhere on the Disc. I do not pretend to know enough, from what I've seen this city stands at a moment in time where it is ready to branch out-"

"The people are not ready. Not yet. They've accepted too much lately." Ventari interrupted. "Over the last few decades I've used many… objectionable methods to get this city to the place it is now. And every time I attempt to do something for the good of the people and the city, and consequently myself, there are those who fight back. The fighting is hardly ever direct - few would dare cross me - but it is there nonetheless, and true change cannot occur unless they are ready. And something on this scale would affect many. I am glad you found Vimes first - others would not have been so receptive."

"He sure seemed _very_ receptive." Vala snarked.

"Exactly." Ventari said. "What would a troll think? An assassin? Then there are those who would throw the town into chaos with new technologies that are freely given. Without an established market and a firm hold, this place could collapse."

"Then keep it secret from the population. It's what Earth did until about a year ago." Jer'll said, speaking for the first time. Everyone turned to look at her. "What?"

The Patrician smiled a smile that was somewhat unnerving. "I had thought of that. But I have few who could keep their lips shut."

"Who would believe that you have a giant alien ring in your basement?" Cam asked.

"A lot of people. In fact there are already such rumors." Suddenly, Ventari got a twinkle in his eye. "Why not make the rumor a reality?" He said to no one in particular.

Cam suddenly wasn't so sure about this guy. "I'll have to talk to my superiors to finalize the decision, but before we do that, we'd like to hear about your world."

Ventari nodded, walking to the door and poking his head out. "Get Ridcully for me would you?"

The assistant paled and nodded, feeling very very doomed all of a sudden.

"Who's Ridcully?"

"Archchancellor of the Unseen University." The Patrician responded. "Most intellectual wizard on the Disc."

"Wizard?" Layton asked.

Ventari looked at Layton. "Your world does not have wizards or magic does it?"

"Not unless you count the abilities of the Priors, and that's poorly understood. Magic is considered not to exist."

Ventari sat back. "Good thing I invited Ridcully. He has a ... _way_ of explaining things." He chuckled. "Do you think you can get one of your Priors down here? As well as one of your superiors?"

Cam wondered how it'd go if O'Neill and Ventari got in the same room together. He grinned.

"I'm sure we can arrange something."

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

Ridcully decided this was something really important. Not only did it take over _twelve_ minutes to explain what was going on, it was very obvious that the messenger was also trying to rush things so he could get out without getting an arrow to the forehead.

The aging wizard strolled into the Patrician's conference room. He had been in this room many times, enough to know that it looked clean but was in fact a place where many _many_ dirty exchanges had taken place.

He took a look at the group before him. He made his opinions on them very clear. He pointed to each of them and said a single word for each.

"Bored, thieving, nervous, inquisitive, short-tempered, snarky, and-"

Then he came to the bald one. The bald one that had _lots_ of magic flowing around him, almost as much as Ridcully himself. The staff was impressive, and the skin was a creepy white.

"-by the gods, where is your _hat?"_

"I fail to see how that is important." Cero responded.

"You can't be a proper wizard without a _hat!"_

Cero blinked. "I am not a member of your order, I am known as a Prior of the Reform. We come from far-"

"Yeah yeah I know the messenger took long enough to explain it."

"He couldn't have explained much." Layton noted.

"Of course not! But it took him longer than two minutes and that means it's worth looking into. Now. What am I here to do?"

O'Neill stood up, a twinkle in his eye. He looked towards Ventari, who nodded. "Archchancellor Ridcully, we are here to have you explain how magic works to us. And in return, we are going to offer you the opportunity of a lifetime."

"What is it?" Ridcully muttered, focusing most of his attention on Cero.

"We are offering your people a chance to explore the stars beyond the Disc."

Ridcully huffed. "And how's that good for me exactly?"

O'Neill blinked. _What-_

"It'll give you a reason to force the wizards to go out and exercise more." Ventari offered. At this Ridcully visibly brightened up.

"Oh well why didn't you say so! Everyone needs to go out and explore the wilderness a bit more." He sat back in a chair, always keeping an eye on Cero. "Now, I assume the Patrician has hashed out most of the details of the exchange and he can explain what I need to know later?"

O'Neill smirked. "This wizard knows what's up. Yes, of course. All we are asking from you right now is a bit of an explanation on how your "magic" works."

Ridcully huffed. "Simply put, and no I'm not going to elaborate, magic is the reason the Discworld exists. There is a thaumaturgical field around the entire Turtle that allows everything to function without listening to the laws of gravity I assume your worlds obey. Some people, wizards and witches, and I suppose enchantresses and warlocks, are able to tap into the field and bend reality to their will, though there is an extent to it. It would take just as much energy for me to make a pie as it would for me to make a pie by hand. Same thing with killing birds, which is why I have a crossbow. Waste of magic."

"How can you-" Cam began.

Ridcully bopped him on the head with his stick. "I'm not done talking yet young man!" O'Neill chuckled. "A secondary effect of this is that the thaumic field around the Disc is minorly influenced by the beliefs of every sentient creature on it. If enough people believe something, it will be true. That's why the gods exist." Ridcully fell silent.

Cam, annoyed, began to speak again. "If it takes just as much energy to do things, how can you do anything?"

"See this staff?" Ridcully said, bopping Cam on the head again. "It stores magic energy over time. Right now it probably has enough energy in it to blow up a mountain. Not that I'd ever do that, waste of magic. Terrible waste." He turned to Ventari. "That good enough?"

O'Neill frowned. "No. What are these… "gods?""

"Oh that's right, you don't have a strong enough field out there in the universe." Ridcully huffed. "No gods, that must be nice-"

Cero spoke up. "There are many godlike beings out among the stars. My former masters, the Ori, were among them."

Ridcully blinked. "Former?" He squinted his eyes. He saw something in this Prior. Someone who rebelled. Ridcully used some of his magic to look deeper into the mind of the Prior.

 _We had to kill them._

Cero stood up suddenly, pointing his staff. "You did something to me."

Ridcully smirked. "Eh don't worry about it, I simply looked deeper into you. Good job detecting it, the wizards are completely oblivious when I use it. Hah." He sat back. "So, god killers huh?"

Ventari's eyes widened.

O'Neill nodded. "It took a war that spanned a couple years, but we eventually took 'em out. Thought they could force us to worship them. They regretted that decision."

Ventari stood up. "You should leave. Now. If you have the capabilities to actually threaten the gods you are in serious danger. They do not take kindly to being shown up in any way."

"Ah yes, the Kite…" Ridcully nodded. "Shame we couldn't take that any further…"

Layton blinked. "What was the Kite?"

"It was a device we used to get to the moon and back to the Disc. Gods did not take kindly to us rising higher than them. Made Leonard paint an entire ceiling of a chapel of some kind as punishment." Ridcully chuckled.

Ventari cut in seeing the look forming on the faces of the visitors. "We do not need your assistance in overthrowing them, their control is loose and a non-issue at the moment. You just need to hurry - the gods may argue long and hard about things but they will act. You may not notice it, in fact you probably won't, but they will turn the winds of this world around against you."

O'Neill frowned. "We can take 'em out for you."

"THAT WOULD BE UNADVISED." A new voice said, drawing everyone's attention.

What stood before them was, quite simply, the grim reaper. A skeleton clothed in a black cloak wielding a very large scythe. It appeared to be smiling - though with a skeleton it was really hard to tell.

Cero stood up, staff at the ready. "This being is powerful - almost as powerful as an Ori." He stated.

Ridcully huffed. "It's just Death, put your staff down. Not that you could kill him anyway-"

"THEY ACTUALLY HAVE THE MEANS TO DO SO RIDCULLY, THOUGH NOT IN THIS ROOM." Death turned to the newcomers. "I HAVE COME TO WARN YOU BEFORE YOU DO ANYTHING STUPID."

O'Neill glared at the skeleton, staring right into the pinpricks of light in his eye sockets. _Creepy…_ "What's wrong with freeing people from oppression and false gods?"

"AS HONORABLE AS YOUR GOALS ARE, IT WOULD BE UNADVISABLE. THINK FOR A MOMENT. IF THIS WORLD RUNS ON THE BELIEF OF THE PEOPLE, AND THE PEOPLE BELIEVE THAT THE GODS MAKE REALITY RUN, WHAT WOULD HAPPEN IF THOSE GODS WERE KILLED?"

Layton snapped his fingers. "Reality would cease to run on the Discworld."

"EXACTLY, PROFESSOR LAYTON." He turned to O'Neill "THEY CANNOT LEAVE THE DISC AND RETAIN ALL THEIR POWERS, SO THEY ARE NO THREAT TO YOU."

O'Neill frowned. "Fine. For now. Now Death, why exactly did they send you?"

"THEY DIDN'T. THEY HAD ALMOST COME UPON THE DECISION TO JUST SMITE YOU. WHICH WOULD HAVE CAUSED A WAR THEY COULDN'T WIN AND BRING AN END TO THE DISC. I CAME HERE OF MY OWN VOLITION. I AM RATHER FOND OF THIS WORLD AND WOULD PREFER THE AUDITORS OF REALITY DID NOT GET TO WIPE IT OFF THE FACE OF EXISTENCE LIKE THEY'VE WANTED TO FOR SO LONG. IF YOU WANT AN ENEMY, SEEK OUT THEM."

"Care to elaborate?"

"PERHAPS IF WE MEET AGAIN, BUT I HAVE A SCHEDULE TO KEEP. I AM DEATH AFTER ALL. ONE OF YOUR ASSISTANTS IS ABOUT TO DIE FROM AN ANXIETY ATTACK."

The Patrician's face gave no indication he cared.

"I MUST BE OFF." Death said, walking away and vanishing, almost as if he used a door that didn't exist.

Jer'll spoke. "What the-"

"Don't question it." Vala said. "That's probably the safe option."

Ridcully laughed. "She gets it!"

[][][][][][][][][][][][][]

"You sure you don't need anything else?" O'Neill said from the Enterprise, talking to Ventari onscreen.

Ventari shook his head. "We would prefer to voyage into the stars on our own. You have graciously given us both gate types, so we shall have access to both sectors. We can contact you if we need to, but if I've learned anything during my time as Patrician it is that people want to feel like they're doing things themselves." His eye twinkled. "And I for one want to see how Ridcully manages to run something that's not just a bunch of crazy old men who really don't do much."

O'Neill chuckled. "Good luck. You know where to find us."

Ventari nodded. "I wish for us to meet again O'Neill." Then he hung up.

"Well he knows where the off button on the communication station is." Cam noted.

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

 _Two days later…_

"You four, as the occupants of the Kite, have been chosen to be the first to pave the way beyond our Disc, in a universe where magic is not common and worlds are round." Ridcully smirked. "And it's going to give you a _lot_ of needed communication with nature. You're all going to have to learn how to survive with nothing but the equipment on your backs."

Ventari nodded. "Go out into the stars and bake a good impression."

Vimes spoke up. "And for the love of the gods, don't piss off the city watches out there. I'll know. Trust me."

Carrot gripped his sword. "It will be my honor to serve."

Leonard of Quirm's smile threatened to cut his head in half. "I cannot _wait_ to get out there!"

Rincewind just sighed melodramatically. _Of course he couldn't get any rest…_

The Librarian just went "Ook."

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

The Renderer dropped out of hyperspace in between Andorian and Tellarite space. The commander of the ship, a young woman by the name of Rachel Henderson, was on a mission to bring supplies to a Tellarite mining world in exchange for some raw materials which would be shipped to Langara to produce more ships.

She was expecting an easy trade mission. Get in, make the trade, relax for a bit, and then head back to Tau'ri space.

Instead, she found herself in between four Tellarite and four Andorian ships in a staring contest with each other.

Her ship was quickly bombarded with hails. She tensed. "Put them up."

Faces of Andorians and Tellarites appeared on the screen. She could not hear what _any_ of them were saying to her. She waited for them to quiet down.

They didn't.

"OKAY ONE AT A TIME!" She yelled. They all shut up. "You, Tellarite in the red, what's happening?"

"These Andorians are attempting to divide up space that isn't theirs! They claimed the land as their own a mere week ago, and the Treaty of Neutral Space dictates that they have to wait a month before the claim can be rectified!"

"No one wants this space!" An Andorian retorted. "If you hadn't come along no one would have cared!"

"The treaty demands that you give other races time to object to your claim!"

"There wasn't even talk of objection! Both of you acknowledged the claim and did nothing about it! We want this space!"

"And you can have it - in two weeks! Go back to your space!"

"This is our space!"

"QUIET!" Henderson yelled, twitching. "Okay, here's how I see it. Andorians, you signed this treaty right?"

"Yes but-"

"Then for Pete's sake _do what you say you'll do_. You signed the treaty- FOLLOW IT. If you object to the treaty now, ask for a new treaty to change the rules or to offer you an exception!" She glared.

"So you're taking _their_ side Tau'ri?"

Henderson bristled. "I may be required to be a mediator, but it is pretty obvious to me that if this was brought to any sort of court you would lose the case. Do you want to start a shooting match over a few planets?"

The Andorian bristled. "...No."

Henderson knew the Andorian was lying, but she let it slide. "You should go back to your space."

"The Tau'ri will regret this." The Andorians muttered before leaving.

The Tellarites nodded. "We thank you for your intervention."

Henderson nodded. "They were breaking the treaty - and you've known about this for some time haven't you?"

The Tellarite widened his eyes. "Very observant of you."

"You chose this moment to confront them because I'd be here to back you up." She frowned. "I understand this is how your people function, but some of us may consider this a bit of an insult."

"Duly noted. We shall advise each other on this matter. You may continue on the supply mission." He paused for a moment. "I believe we should thank you for actually being willing to take a side, the Vulcans just debilitate for months and neither the Andorians nor us have the time for that. Decisiveness is a good trait."

Henderson nodded before closing the connection.

She had just ticked the Andorians off. While she doubted she would lose her job as she had strengthened relations with the Tellarites, people would be hesitant to send her on further missions.

Great…

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

Midgard, Earth away from Earth as the inhabitants were calling it, was becoming heavily developed. There was already a major city, Nexus, that could rival any large city on Earth easily. Commercial ships flew in and out of the city daily, even more than on Earth. The reason for this was that Midgard was safer - anyone who chose to leave Earth and go to Midgard was generally not going to go into a rage at any offworlders. While obviously Earth's markets were better suited at the moment, Midgard was quickly becoming the secondary hub for the Tau'ri, threatening to outpace even Hebridan.

It was not a world of production or rich materials, it was more a world of culture. The Nexus was built like a piece of art, with tall graceful buildings seeming to blend in with the sky, and streets that weaved in gentle patterns away from the center. At night lights would come on, slowly shifting through all the colors of the rainbow, giving the entire city an appearance similar to that of a color wheel.

It was an impressive feat of engineering and adaptation of technology. It had taken a little over a year to build the central buildings, and the Nexus was constantly expanding outward, often enveloping smaller settlements into it.

It was the pride of the Tau'ri Alliance, and the people loved showing it off to visitors. There were always a few Vulcans, Andorians, and Tellarites on the new world. A few had even taken up temporary residence. Some in order to study the Tau'ri, others simply because they liked the city. Still others saw it as a get-rich quick scheme. Sell "rare alien artifacts" to the ever-eager humans.

Nothing they were doing was technically illegal, so all the Tau'ri could do was make sure their citizens were aware of the scams everywhere. They were not doing so well.

Midgard was, however, by far the most advanced of the new Tau'ri colonies, and regardless of any shady underside, the Tau'ri took pride in their new world.

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

O'Neill was itching, once more, to get to where they needed to go.

This sector had turned out to have a whole lot of dead planets. In fact, since Discworld, they had found no civilizations at all. They had found a couple of stargates and Ancient ruins, but no signs of anything advanced. They had been stopping at almost every planet, and while Lee and Layton found many of the cosmological phenomena around fascinating, O'Neill was bored as dirt. No, more bored than dirt.

He really wanted to arrive at the other reason they were out here, the planet that had a mini star-like object orbiting around it. Though Lee had been hesitant to call it "orbiting," it's speed wasn't constant and seemed to jump every now and then at irregular intervals.

O'Neill didn't particularly care why the star-thing acted like this - he just knew that weirdness equalled something interesting. Something that might actually give him more than one day's entertainment. Ventari had been clear that they wanted to find things out on their own, and aside from one call from Leonard of Quirm asking if the stargate was likely to blow up if activated next to another of its kind, there had been nothing.

The Enterprise dropped out of warp.

The world below them was obviously Earthlike, with blue and green everywhere. Clouds marred the marble beneath them, giving the world an almost whimsical look. The world looked… clean.

There was a moon, slightly smaller than the star-like object, and a little closer to the world. To O'Neill, everything looked more or less normal.

Then the sun suddenly moved and then stopped. O'Neill blinked.

"Ah…" Lee said, smirking. "The mystery. The "sun" will orbit as normal for several more hours, then it will perform another jump. The amount of hours is never exact. I'm going to love cracking this mystery."

"So what's the report?" Archer asked.

Layton looked at a console. "There is obviously higher civilization here. I have identified railroads and large cities on a few of the continents. Some areas appear industrialized, but most appear rural."

"So where should we send a team?" O'Neill asked.

Before anyone could say anything, the sun moved again, moving far across the sky and then moving in a rapid circular motion.

Lee blinked. "It's… never done that before… At least not when we've watched it…"

Layton looked at his console. "It is making a small circle around an area on the surface of the planet." Layton blinked. "There… appears to be a clearing there just large enough for the Enterprise to land. It is roughly a dozen miles from one of the largest cities." Layton blinked again. "Also an arrow has just appeared on that area of land."

There was silence on the bridge.

"Well that sounds like an invite if I've ever heard one. Take us down." O'Neill adjusted himself. "I'm curious to meet these folks. They obviously want to meet us."

Vala smiled. "You know what that means!"

"Yep! They'll want to be good friends and will have no desire to extort us for anything!" O'Neill said sarcastically.

He was about to be given a taste of hot smoking irony.

[][][][][][][][][][][]

The Enterprise descended onto the world carefully. The world was just as bright and colorful up close - the trees were green, the sky a vibrant blue, and the clouds almost whimsical. Easily visible from their vantage point was a large castle-like city built into the side of a rather tall mountain that glinted in the sunlight. Speaking of the sun, it had returned to its appropriate path once the Enterprise had gotten close to the ground. From this close to the surface, the sun looked just like the sun on Earth, there was no indication of anything unusual about it. It slowly moved across the sky as the day progressed.

The Enterprise sat down on the grass with a light thunk, no complications arose as the rather large craft landed.

O'Neill, Cero, and SG-1 stood at the doors off to the left side of the Enterprise, ready to move out.

Cam adjusted his gun. "What should we expect?"

"Prepare for anything." O'Neill responded, Everyone nodded.

The doors opened…

"SURPRISE!" was the first thing that they heard, and what happened next they had no time to even process. In a flash of pink, party blowers were stuck into each of their mouths, and a party hat latched onto all of their heads. They found themselves at a table with colorful confetti, streamers, and cake.

Cam didn't even have time to say "Wha-" before a pink horse-like creature appeared before them, right on top of the table. Aside from being pink, there were a few other things different about the creature standing before them. For one, it was slightly smaller than an actual horse, and its head was much larger in comparison to its body. The eyes were forward-facing and _huge,_ the bright blue irises staring at all of them with immense cheer. The mane and tail of the creature were extremely poofy, and a strange mark of three balloons were on her flank.

"WELCOME TO EQUIS AND EQUESTRIA! I'm Pinkie Pie and I have _soooo_ many questions! Who are you people? Where you from? What's your ship called? How's it feel to have hands? How-"

"That's enough Pinkie." A purple creature similar to Pinkie said, although the newcomer had wings and a horn. "They probably have similar questions." She turned to them. "I am Princess Twilight Sparkle."

SG-1 and co looked behind Twilight to see several other creatures, most (but not all) of them pony-like. The tallest of them walked to the front of the group. "And I am Princess Celestia, and I welcome you to our fair land. We have much to learn from each other. We accept you with open hooves."

Silence from the group. O'Neill was still trying to register the party blower. He tried to say something but all that came out was "FWEEEEEEE!"

Pinkie leapt up in front of him. "You can't talk with the party blower in _!_ " She promptly removed the blower from his mouth and stuck it in her own. "That's just silly!"

O'Neill's brain failed to process this. Then it said "screw it" and just decided to go with it.

"Hello there little ponies! I'm General O'Neill and we come in peace. Excuse the guns, we didn't know what to expect. Now does this party have any strong drink?"

An orange pony raised her hoof. "Ah got some. Take me a few minutes to get the hard cider though."

"Good." O'Neill said. "I need one. Anyone else need anything?" Silence from SG-1. He turned to the ponies. "What about you all? We've got plenty of stuff."

Twilight looked him over. Then she turned to the ship. "I want to know how it works!"

"Twilight…" Celestia cautioned.

Cam laughed. "It's not a big deal. Not like any of us here aside from Lee actually know _how_ it works. Not like the theory behind it is a big secret…" He turned to O'Neill. "Is it?"

"Nah." O'Neill said. "We're pretty open about things."

"GREAT!" Twilight grinned. "I can't wait to know more!"

Layton nodded. "We would love to learn more about you as well… what do you call yourselves?"

Another voice spoke - a third pony with both a horn and wings, who was the color of night. "We are Equestrians, one of the many races on this world. You may think we are the dominant ones judging from the crowd, but that's just because you landed in our nation."

Layton put his hand to his chin. "How did you manage to guide us here anyway? Even we lack the power to move the sun-"

Celestia blinked, as if she wasn't entirely sure how to respond to this.

"Sister, you should tell them. They'll find out eventually."

Celestia nodded. "I have the power to move the sun as I see fit. I control the day. My sister Luna controls the moon."

Lee gaped. "But that's impossible! The energy required to move a moon-like body would take astronomical amounts of power! Even if we hooked up every ZPM we've located, I'm still not sure we could do it!"

Celestia sighed, lighting her horn in a golden aura. Cero tensed, then relaxed as he realized it wasn't targeting them in any way. The crowd was treated with a view of the sun dipping beneath the horizon plunging the world into night, then jumping to noon, and then returning to its appropriate location.

Lee's glasses fell down his face. He was stunned into silence.

O'Neill made a mental note. _They're friendly now. Let's keep it that way._

"Now," Celestia said, "I assume that is enough of a demonstration. We can talk more about our cultures and relations later, and I have a Canterlot session scheduled for tomorrow with that exact purpose in mind. I just need to make sure you all truly come in peace and what you look like so I can make sure my subjects know you are to be treated like any other pony."

"Well all of us, even those of us who aren't human -that's what we call our race- have the same body shape…" Lee commented.

"Some of you are not human?"

Jer'll stood up. "I am a Jaffa, a people of proud warriors."

Celestia's eyes widened. "...Warriors? Why would an entire people need to be warriors?"

"We can explain later, as you said." Layton responded. "But I will vouch for them. Even though they are somewhat violent, they are an excellent and proud people."

Celestia nodded. "Of course. Until then, enjoy the party Pinkie has so kindly laid out for us. You may also want to warn your crew, she likes to get to know everyone and I've yet to discover a method to keep her from meeting _everyone_."

O'Neill quickly made sure to instruct marines _not_ to shoot the surprising pink creature.

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

"Hey! You're one difficult person to find!"

T'pol looked down from the data pad she was looking at, mildly surprised to see Pinkie Pie before her. "I was hoping to avoid a confrontation, I am here to represent the Vulcan people and until the meeting, I do not see the logic in engaging in any festivities where cultural differences could crop up."

Pinkie rolled her eyes. "I know your type, you just need to get out and _feel_ the _party._ Trust me, you'll feel a lot better when you do!"

"Something you should know about Vulcans - our society is founded on the power of logic over illogical emotions. There would be no benefit to engaging in the party, and in fact could end up in drama. I hope you understand."

"Oh of couuuuuurse."

T'pol nodded. At least she seemed reasonable-

"Challenge accepted! I _will_ get you to smile and have a good time!" And with that she bounced off.

T'pol raised an eyebrow. They were obviously a highly emotional people. This could prove to be somewhat irritating.

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

"BON BON! DID YOU HEAR THE PRINCESS'S SPEECH?"

"Yes I did Lyra…" Bon Bon sighed, packaging the candy she had just made for Pinkie Pie. "Aliens-"

"Not just ALIENS…." The minty colored unicorn said, grinning. "HUMAN aliens."

"Lyra, you've been with the agency for a while now. You know that humans exist across the mirror-"

"Ah but these are _different!"_ Lyra said, generating a flow-chart with her magic. "You see, those humans operate on a different set of physics and reality - and could not possibly be the ancient humans. But these - these could lead to answers! Plus nobody's going to let me through the mirror, they always say it's off limits to crazy conspiracy theorists..."

Bon Bon sighed again. "So let me guess, you're going to investigate?"

"OF COURSE!" She put on sunglasses. "And this is the first time I can do my research _and_ be an agent! It'll be awesome Bon Bon! Come on!"

"We haven't been assigned to do anything with them…"

Lyra looked over the sunglasses. "Does any _other_ agent have 'human conspiracy theorist' on their profile?"

Bon Bon blinked. "...Not that I'm aware of-"

"Then we're getting assigned. Come on we should be there before they even call us! It'll be great!"

"Lyra that's not-"

Lyra wasn't listening, already dragging Bon Bon out the door.

"LYRAAAAAAAAAA!"

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

"So how fast does it go?"

Archer was looking down at the rainbow-maned winged pegasus before him, who went by the name Rainbow Dash. He considered telling her to ask an engineer, but she was apparently an important person on this world. It would probably be best if the answer came from him rather than a long-winded engineer.

"One hundred and fifty light years per hour."

Rainbow Dash's face blanked. It was obvious she didn't understand that number.

"It'd get to the next star in about two minutes."

Rainbow's eyes widened. "No way. That's… Well I guess you'd need to go that fast out here but… wow…"

"What's your people's top speed by the way?"

Rainbow Dash's eyes lit up, the eyes of someone who has been waiting for that question to be asked forever. "I am currently the record holder, being the only pegasus who can achieve a speed high enough to unleash a Sonic Rainboom!"

"And how fast is that?" Archer asked, curious.

"Er... " Rainbow put a hoof to her chin. "I believe Twilight told me I hit ten times the speed of sound?"

Archer gaped. "What kind of technology do you have that lets you go that fast?"

"Technology?" Rainbow laughed. "Who needs it? All you need is two pairs of wings." She flared the limbs in question. "Wings, and a lot of skill."

Archer blinked, not entirely sure what to say to that. Given the fact that the white one outside could move the sun, for all he knew she wasn't exaggerating at all.

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

"Welcome to Canterlot!" Twilight said, raising her hoof over her head. SG-1 and co gaped. Far away, the city was an impressive feat of engineering. Up close, however, it was something else entirely. Ponies of all kinds were walking around, talking, and going about their daily business inside what was essentially a giant piece of art. The entire city sloped in a fluid fashion, and the spires poked out at seemingly gravity-defying angles.

Twilight grinned back at the team. "Isn't it amazing?"

"It's… impressive." Cam responded.

"Good! Now before the princesses takes you into some boring meeting - and trust me even they know it's boring - I'll show you around!" She lit her horn, lifting a checklist in front of her. "Let's see… ooh! We need to go look at the castle first!"

Cero looked at Twilight's horn. "It is very interesting how you seem to have a natural way to manipulate the world around you."

"We call it magic." Twilight said. "There is a natural fabric of magic spread throughout the universe - well that's the theory anyway. We don't really have the resources to actually test it effectively."

"As far as we can tell, it is true. The wizards of the Discworld told us a similar theory."

Twilight's eyes sparkled. "Ooh! There _is_ alien magic! I've always wondered what it was like! How does it work?"

"We know little about how the wizards of the Disc use theirs - evidentially they store magic in their staffs to release later. I am what is known as a Prior, a being blessed with the power to manipulate reality. The more I see, the more I come to believe this power simply taps into the thaumic fabric."

Twilight put a hoof to her chin. "Hrm… how does magic show itself in those who aren't Priors?"

"Come again?"

"All races have some sort of magic, be it latent or otherwise."

Layton shook his head. "Your people and the people of the Disc are the only ones we have seen to use magic. And on the Disc only select people can."

Twilight gaped. "You have… _no_ magic?"

"Not as far as we know." Cam responded.

Twilight blinked. "That's… amazing!" She grinned, taking out a notebook. "How does it feel to be around me? Can you feel anything when I light my horn? What does it feel like when magic is-"

She stopped realizing everyone was staring at her. "Sorry, got a bit carried away. There'll be time for questions later. Now let me introduce you to Spike. He's a dragon."

Vala raised an eyebrow. Dragon eh? Should be interesting.

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

"Our nation had its start when the three pony tribes bound together a little over two-thousand years ago and asked my sister and I to rule them." Celestia smiled. "Our nation has lived in relative peace since then, and we have progressed rather quickly since then, if a bet unevenly. Manehattan is our most advanced city, making extensive use of factories and electricity. We are on good relations with all the races on our borders, save the Changelings. Our nation consists primarily of three varieties of pony, earth pony, unicorn, and pegasus. Our race, alicorn, is a rare one thought to be impossible to create naturally until recently. We serve as the rulers for the country of Equestria."

"Princess Mi Amore Cadenza wishes to make it clear that she would have loved to be here, but is currently burdened with running the Crystal Empire and being a new mother." Twilight added.

Celestia nodded. "There are other races within our borders, such as donkeys and buffalo, but they make up a minority, though you probably saw a few donkeys in the city. Our society has, at its core, the principles of living in harmony: Honesty, Kindness, Loyalty, Generosity, Laughter, and Magic. Twilight and her five friends have been chosen as the embodiments of these six elements and hold a special position in our society as Element Bearers, a position I believe is somewhat similar to your own SG-1, although on a smaller scale."

"You mentioned other races on your borders. What are they?" Layton asked.

"To the north are the Yaks, a honorable if a bit stubborn race. To the east lies Griffonstone, a nation of griffons currently recovering from a somewhat recent disaster. To the southeast lie the Dragon Lands which have become in recent years our most powerful ally. To the southwest lies Zebrica, home to the wise and thoughtful zebras. And to the south…. Well that's where the Changelings live."

"Your enemies?" O'Neill asked. "Should we be worried about them?"

"Possibly." Celestia said. "They have the unique ability to take on the appearance of any pony they see. They feed off emotions - specifically love, though simple affection or simply being near love can feed them as well. Most are loyal to Queen Chrysalis and her hive. The Queen tried a few years ago to conquer Equestria - and she quite obviously failed. We haven't heard much from her sense."

Twilight spoke up. "I want to make it clear that not all Changelings are evil servants of Chrysalis - there's one living in ponyville named Kevin. He hides his nature as often as he can but he's nice once you get to know him. Just please, recognize that some are good."

O'Neill smiled. This little purple alicorn had just increased his faith in these people. They wanted to make sure that even their _enemies_ were treated reasonably well - he could respect that. "I'll be sure to keep that in mind, but if they attack us we will retaliate. We are no strangers to bad guys. But I'll be sure to leave Kevin."

Layton frowned. "You only mentioned your neighbors… something tells me that isn't the entire planet-"

"No it's not." Luna responded. "But we do not know what lies to the west, and we have not explored the entire world. The only other nation we know of is the Centaur and Gargoyle lands, and we only had a brief contact with them about two thousand years ago. We haven't the slightest idea where they are now."

Celestia nodded. "Our knowledge is horribly inadequate. We have sent messages to all the surrounding nations - even the Changelings - regarding you. We should not be the only nation to benefit from your arrival, the entire Planet should. But without knowledge, we cannot contact the entire planet. I apologize."

O'Neill waved his hand. "Ah, no need at all. Most of the people we meet would try to keep us to themselves anyway. Though I do wonder… if you control the sun and moon, how have you not explored the other parts of the planet?"

Celestia shook her head. "Aside from my sister's journeys around two thousand years ago, we have stayed here ruling our people. We have developed our own lands extensively, and help those neighboring our own, but we are unable to keep track of everything. All we do is make sure the sun and moon do what they should do."

"How does that work exactly?"

Celestia looked at her horn. "To be honest, we aren't exactly sure. We just discovered that our special talents involved moving the sun and moon. Before we came along it took a large group of unicorns in a specific ritual to move the sun, and to be frank they weren't very accurate with it."

Luna huffed. "That's an understatement. It never moved straight and often changed in size. Remember the time they tried to let it move on its own?"

Celestia shuddered. "Winter. That was a horrible winter."

Lee blinked. " _That's_ why you have to move it! It's orbit must not be stable - it floats further away. Interesting… very interesting… someone would obviously have had to construct this… Someone had to have built this place…"

Celestia shook her head. "If that is so, it was before our time. We do not know where we came from or why this world is the way it is. I am sorry."

Layton smiled. "Why be sorry? It means there is just more mystery to uncover."

" _Oh I like these guys… Enjoy a good mystery…"_

With a flash, and unusual creature that seemed to be part dragon, part pony, part snake, and part… something else appeared. He grinned, his yellow eyes boring into everyone's eyes.

"Discord!" Celestia yelled accusingly. "Why are you here? This is a serious meeting-"

"Do you _honestly_ think I'd just _not_ come in and crash your important political party? Plus you and me both know you find these talks rather boring."

Celestia shiftily looked around. "...Perhaps…"

"Nothing to be ashamed of." O'Neill offered. "I apologize for the politicians my people are going to send over in advance."

"Ah... " Celestia said, obviously not looking forward to it.

"I can just make them all forget how to talk." Discord offered.

"Discord, please do not anger the creatures with the power to fly between the stars - something even you cannot do."

Discord shrugged. "I'll think about it. Until then, who wants hats?" He snapped his fingers, causing cowboy hats to appear on everyone's heads.

Cero took his off with his powers. "What are you?"

"Discord, spirit of Chaos. Pleased to make your acquaintance." Discord shook both Cero's hands with a single foot. He suddenly appeared to be in the wall. "You Priors do realize you aren't using your full power, right? The Ori were keeping back."

"How would you know that?"

"I have my ways." Discord said, as his eyes appeared everywhere. Then he appeared in a flash of light, laughing once more. "Oh, this is so fun, all your faces are so priceless!"

Jer'll roared. "I WILL GUT YOU!"

Discord turned her upsi-down. "Yeah yeah great proud warrior race _blah._ Your kind bore me."

"Discord!" Celestia gasped. Jer'll found herself unable to move.

"What?" He blinked. "Oh. Right. No offending them." He righted Jer'll. "Sorry about that, got a bit carried away-"

He got punched in the nose. He frowned. "Well I should return the favor-" He caught Celestia's look. "Or not. I'll be off now. See you later, General Snark!"

O'Neill stared blankly ahead. Not that he minded, but _how_ exactly had that become his unofficial nickname?

As Discord vanished, he turned to Celestia. "Good luck at the Summit dear Tia."

"Of course."

"What is the Summit?" Cam asked.

"It's the meeting I called of the nations. It will be held next week, that is if you are here."

O'Neill shrugged. "I don't see why not. You're being a lot more open than the Disky people. Let's have more parties!"

"You do still have that party hat on." Vala noted.

"I do? Huh. Didn't notice."

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

Luna and Celestia stood at the top of Canterlot Tower, looking at the heavens and the stars.

"They look exactly like her, Tia." Luna said.

"I know. But there are humans in the otherworld-"

"They are were different. These are the same. They do not know any more than we do - I have checked to make sure of that - but should we be concerned? She did say…"

"I know what she said. But we should give these people the benefit of the doubt. They have come to us with open ho- arms, and we should accept them until given reason to believe otherwise."

"Of course Tia, I was just making sure you were being cautious."

"I know Luna. I know." She looked up at the stars. "They did mention real enemies out there. They said they were defeated, but I find it hard to believe that the vast areas of space do not hold other horrors. The demons of Tartarus probably pale in comparison to the horrors that await out there in the sky."

"Do not forget the Stars Tia."

"I know."

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

Caldwell looked at the report in his hands.

The Lucian Alliance had decided to try and open trade with the other races. The Vulcans turned down instantly, knowing perfectly well the Lucian Alliance's tendencies to smuggle and break other laws. The Tellarites took a little longer to make a decision, but they eventually declined.

The Andorians accepted, being their usual stuck-up selves about it but treating them like any other race.

Caldwell looked up from the report. "And what am I supposed to do?"

"You need to talk to them, show them that the Lucian Alliance is not to be trusted."

"...Why me? I'm not the most excellent of diplomats."

"The Andorians do not seem to respect smooth talkers, or logical thinkers, or even peaceful negotiation. We're sending you in the Odyssey to make a show of it, see if that does something. We are running out of options with them. So we're trying something new."

Caldwell sighed. This was a bad plan.

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

Scratch that, it was an absolutely horrible plan.

"What are you going to do about it _human?_ We have opened trading negotiations with them and that's final. We will not bend simply because you _know_ they are liars. You yourselves are liars! Everyone, even the Vulcans, are liars! There are no truthful trade partners!"

"Listen here, they've screwed us over a lot more than we've screwed them, and they have lied and cheated their way to get to where they are now-"

"Maybe you're just bad at realizing when you're being fooled." The Andorian's lips curled up into a smile.

Caldwell was about to have an aneurysm. "Look, they are going to try and ruin you! Take you over with an underground operation! How can you want this?"

" _You_ trade with them!"

"You and I both know that we're slowly limiting them to what they can do, and that's only because we allowed ourselves to trade with them in the first place! We're trying to save you the trouble!"

"The Andorians choose to view this as a way we are better than you - we will not let them destroy us from within or meddle in our affairs. We will benefit."

There was a hang up.

Caldwell sighed. "They're just looking for _some_ way to one-up us… Damnit…"

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

"Carter!" A soldier called. "Have a report for you!"

"Hrm?" The ex-member of SG-1 and current head of RnD for the Alliance looked up. "What is it?"

"The Odin detected an unusual energy signature around PX-3453's star. Here are the readings." He handed them over. The papers were marked with "PRIORITY."

Carter furrowed her brow, flipping the file open. Inside were a bunch of mathematical reading and graphs that would make no sense to most people, but they were instantly recognizable to her.

"This… this is a cloaking signature. And a really advanced one at that. The readings here are so miniscule... " She checked the date. An entire month ago. That meant the Odin hadn't noticed what it was looking at while it was there - this had only been discovered by chance in readings check.

"I want as many readings as possible to be scanned for these signatures. And I know many will just pick up background radiation - I don't care. We have to see if this is an isolated incident or if these readings are commonplace. We are being watched, and not by any Goa'uld or Jaffa. This is too… clean. Too advanced."

The officer got right to it.

Carter frowned.

"Even though this is better than the Goa'uld cloak by a large margin… the readings are shockingly similar…"

[][][][][][][][][][][][]

Vala had managed to get _out_ of attending the official Summit - as interesting as these creatures were, she did not want to be stuck in a meeting with them for _days._ She had whined, begged, and pleaded to O'Neill to just let her wander around the meeting location - Canterlot Castle itself - while the Summit itself was actually going on.

Since she was not in the meeting hall itself, she got to witness quite the spectacle as the various peoples arrived from across the planet. The first thing she noticed was that the cloud city the Pegasi lived in had been moved to position itself right above Canterlot. Supposedly this was just to allow the flying creatures with something for them to enjoy, but Vala knew a show of power when she saw one. Cloudsdale was quite the impressive - and intimidating - sight. An entire city-ship made out of easily repairable clouds. Not to mention that it looked absolutely dazzling. Vala could appreciate artistic taste.

"Hey Bon Bon! There's one!" A minty-green unicorn said, walking up to Vala. "Hey there, I'm Lyra Heartstrings, and I have a _million bazillion_ questions about Humans." She grinned a slightly psychotic, and yet somehow cute smile.

The earth pony behind her, presumably Bon Bon, just facehooved. Vala grinned. She had been planning on telling unicorn to go bug someone else, but the earth pony was just _asking_ to be annoyed.

"Ask away, I've got all day."

"Woah! Do you speak in rhymes?"

"As much as I'd like to make you believe that, I don't have the necessary poetic flair. Name's Vala Mal Doran."

Bon Bon's ears perked up. "SG-1?"

"Why yes. How would you know that?"

Bon Bon shrugged. "Lyra here's a bit of a human enthusiast."

Lyra grinned. "Yep! They told me I was wrong, they told me humans didn't exist - but it is I who proved them wrong!"

Vala smiled. "Yeah. Not surprised there's some sort of human conspiracy."

"Oh?"

Vala grinned. "Oh yes, with the Ancients spreading us round like grass and races enslaving us left and right, we are probably involved in just about everything in the galaxy."

Lyra's eyes widened. "Tell me more…"

Vala shrugged. "Short version: we are the children of a race of super-powerful Ancients who didn't understand the meaning of the word "restraint." They made everything big, overpowered, and built to last thousands of millions of years. They also decided to make us in their own image and spread us around everywhere, and that's basically it. Tah-dah, we're the most common race as far as we know. We're like ants."

Bon Bon cocked her head at the analogy. "Ants?"

"Yep. Small, insignificant alone, but sure as heck numerous and can cause a good deal of annoyance to higher beings with our complex colonies." She leaned back, smirking.

Lyra nodded, mentally taking extensive notes. "Do you have any idea about your presence on ancient Equis?"

Bon Bon facehooved. "There's no proof of that Lyra…"

Vala grinned. "Oh I have no doubt that your humans actually existed - though they may have been Ancients. They look a lot like us after all." She blinked. "I could use a drink…"

Lyra levitated some cider out of her saddlebags. Vala took it gladly, taking a swig. She blinked. "Tastes a lot like apples…"

"Vintage Apple Family Hard Cider. Kept fresh by my magic." Lyra grinned. "I have a stash. Figured I'd bring some."

"Not as large as Berry's stash." Bon Bon noted.

"Yeah. How does she even keep that much? She's not a unicorn! It should spoil!"

Vala rolled her eyes. These two were really something.

Just as Lyra was about to ask Vala more questions, the first of the foreign dignitaries arrived. A group of about thirty griffons landed. Vala was mildly surprised at the many varieties of griffon - some had stripes, some had pretty feathers, and the tail designs were all different. The head of the group, an eagle-lion griffon, came forth.

"Eh, yeah. Listen up everyone! Griffonstone representatives here! Someone tell us where to go."

"Right this way Gilda." Twilight said, landing in front of the griffon in question. "The main room's over here. Take your close advisors with you and leave the rest to mingle around the castle. Most of the structure is open to everyone."

"Yeah, thanks Twi. Come on griffons, let's go meet these humans and show them how awesome we are!"

There were some cheers from the griffons as they went into the meeting hall through the truly tremendous doors.

Vala cocked her head. "Why are the doors so _big?"_

"Dragons." Lyra commented. "The previous dragonlord, Torch, is coming so they needed to make them _really_ big. Had to get them specially made and everything on short notice. There's no roof in the meeting room you know."

"I expect him to have to fly in." Bon Bon commented.

Vala shrugged, drinking more of the cider. Good stuff. She passed it to Lyra, and the two talked about random human and pony things, waiting for more arrivals and mocking a certain unicorn Prince Blueblood as he whined about not being let into the meeting room.

"I HAVE ARRIVED!" An extremely _loud_ voice proclaimed. Vala stared in awe as the largest creature she had ever seen landed, shaking the ground. He was obviously a dragon - big, green, scaly, and this particular one had two horns. He could crush almost anyone here with his pinky. "I AM EX-DRAGONLORD TORCH. Where is the MEETING?"

Vala watched as a small purple dragon walked up to him. This dragon was smaller than some dogs, and noticeably had no wings. "Hey Torch. How's Ember?"

"Ah Spike. I regret that Ember couldn't come, she had internal matters to attend to. Something about this 'economy' she's developing."

"Ah that. Well right this way. Hope the doors are big enough for you."

"HAH! No doors are big enough for me! COME DRAGONS! WE WILL SHOW THIS DOOR!"

One of the other dragons - a huge creature in its own right, though still dwarfed by Torch, whispered something in the ex-Dragonlord's ear.

"Er… change of plans. We fly OVER the door so we don't make them make another one. Sad, I know, less destruction but it keeps unwanteds from spying on us. Or something." And with that the truly tremendous creature took to the skies, entering the meeting room from above. Some of his dragons followed him, others stayed behind to mingle.

Vala was struck by the sheer variety of them. They seemed to come in every size, though Torch was by far the biggest. Most were bigger than humans, and they came in all colors. And yes, they could breathe fire. Among other things. Vala swore she saw an ice dragon in the mix.

"Pay up." Bon Bon told Lyra.

"You didn't bet anything Bon Bon."

Bon Bon shrugged. Vala chose this moment to cut in. "So… dragons. Friendly?"

"Now they are." Lyra said. "Until recently they kinda looked at us ponies as, and I quote, 'namby-pamby wimps who know need to give us all their pillows.' Then Ember became Dragonlord and changed all that. She's still in the process of changing the dragon nation. They've advanced really quickly."

Bon Bon nodded. "The griffons are worse off though - their society completely fell apart. They're still trying to rebuild it bit by bit, and are just barely accepting our help in doing so."

"YAKS FIND THIS PLACE SUITABLE!"

"And those would be the Yaks. Loud, stubborn, obnoxious, but they're our allies nonetheless." Bon Bon shuddered. "I can't stand them…"

Vala sighed. "I know their type. Not very intelligent either I suppose?"

Bon Bon shook her head. "Not really. You do find a smart one from time to time but that's a rarity."

Lyra pointed. "Hey look over there, that's the last group coming!"

Vala saw as the Zebra delegation came. Unlike all the other groups, the Zebras seemed… organized. They walked in formation, their ambassadors adorned with awe-inspiring trinkets and artifacts. They came into the room, and their presence demanded respect.

"Greetings to Equestria from Zebrica. I am Ambassador Ottom." The lead Zebra was male, standing a full head taller than the other Zebras. His eyes seemed old and wise, his body well built.

Vala blinked. "Is it just me or are the Zebras the only ones here who seem really prepared to play the political game?"

Bon Bon nodded. "Yeah. Griffons, Dragons, and Yaks are not known for their restraint. And most ponies don't care all that much for political intrigue. Celestia's good at it only because of necessity."

Lyra shrugged. "I don't mind it."

"You're not a normal unicorn Lyra. We've established this."

Lyra simply nodded in agreement. She tried to nab the cider back from Vala, but found it was empty. She levitated the empty container close to her face.

"...wow. You like your drink."

Vala grinned. "Oh yes."

Lyra shrugged. "So now that everyone's here, what do we do now?"

"Perhaps-"

Suddenly there was a scream. Three ponies ran into the area. "CHANGELINGS! THE HORROR! THE HORROR!" And then they promptly passed out.

Everyone heard a deep, thrumming sigh. " **You ponies are so easy to frighten…"** A four-legged insect like being walked into the room. Her wings were tattered, her legs filled with holes like swiss cheese, and her color an ugly black. She glared at everyone with piercing green eyes, and a riddled horn stood prominently on her head. Behind her were several dozen much smaller - but similar - creatures.

There was complete silence.

" **What, was the invitation a mere formality? I wish to be informed of these events and to have some say. Did you** _ **really**_ **expect me to just** _ **ignore**_ **everything?"**

The entire hall was silent - dragons, ponies, griffons, zebras, and yaks all had nothing to say.

Then the giant doors opened a crack, and a pinkish-purple unicorn came out. "I am Starlight Glimmer, if you'd please follow me the meeting has already begun."

" **Ah, Twilight's pupil. I've heard** _ **so**_ **much about you-"**

"The meeting please?" Starlight said. "They're not waiting."

" **Of course. Heheheheheh."**

Vala shuddered. She knew an evil laugh when she heard one. _Definitely_ Queen Chrysalis.

"She's the Queen right? Why didn't she send a representative?"

"In the hive, all are equal before the queen. She can't send anyone aside from herself because all drones are equal. And more or less identical." Bon Bon replied.

Lyra nodded. "Still have no idea how Kevin manages to be different…"

"I'm thinking mutation."

"Still... " Lyra furrowed her brow. "It's a mystery…"

Vala shrugged. "Have any more cider?"

"I have a spare. I just have to go get it."

Vala grinned. "Hey, I wonder if a dragon can get drunk?"

Lyra grinned back. "Oh that's a thought…"

Bon Bon facehooved. "You two are just a factory of bad ideas aren't you?"

Vala chuckled. "You should see O'Neill. He has even _worse_ ideas."

[][][][][][][][][]][][][][][]

"EXPLAIN TO ME WHY I SHOULDN'T TORCH YOU RIGHT NOW?"

" **Mainly because without me to guide them the hive would just go on a random and possibly murderous rampage?"**

"THATS… That's actually a good reason. Darn. I really wanted torched bug." Torch grunted.

Celestia nodded. "And besides, I did invite her."

Torch grunted. "Hate the bugs…"

Ottom held up a hoof. "We must remain civil here, we do have to decide the fate of our world. We cannot do that by continually bickering."

Gilda grunted. "It does tend to cause problems. You have no idea how much bickering I have to deal with on a daily basis…" She glared at a few of her fellow griffons. "You know who you are."

Yorik the yak yelled. "BE CIVIL OR I SHALL MAKE YOU BE CIVIL!"

"That didn't sound very civil." Luna observed.

"THIS IS CIVIL!"

"I LOVE YAKS!" Torch laughed. "THEY UNDERSTAND YELLING!"

"Yes but the rest of us don't." Celestia said, sighing.

Torch rolled his eyes. "Oh did you forget how to use the Royal Canterlot Voice?"

"It turned out to not be so effective."

"HA!" Torch grinned. "Anyway I suppose we have business to get to… YOU. HUMAN. Say something."

O'Neill grinned even though the giant dragon was really making him nervous. "You got it buddy."

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

"The Stargates will be housed within Cloudsdale then." Celestia responded. "The city is mobile and can be moved closer to any nation that wishes to use them, solving the geography problem."

"YAKS FIND THIS ACCEPTABLE AS LONG AS TRANSPORT IS CREATED."

Gilda smiled. "Cloudsdale's nice I suppose. Good enough for me."

"The location is suitable." Ottom noted. "But infrastructure for non flying people will have to be created. I can offer Zebrican cloud charms for a temporary solution."

"Hah. Ground dwellers are going to need help." Torch snickered. "The place is suitable for a dragon. I do expect more dragon buildings to be added. WITH PILLOWS."

Everyone slowly turned to look at Queen Chrysalis.

" **What?"**

"You know what." Luna accused. "You are not an ally of Equestria or any of these nations. Therefore you cannot set foot in Cloudsdale without a specific invitation." Luna glared. "Unless you are willing to sign the treaty-"

" **You and I both know that I will not expose my agents."** Chrysalis said. " **They provide love for the hive."**

"You and I both know there's a workaround. We could give it to you." Celestia said.

Chrysalis growled. " **I will** _ **not**_ **be looked down with** _ **pity.**_ **Changelings take what we want. We don't need anyone else!"**

Torch grunted, rolling his eyes. O'Neill spoke up. "You know, bug lady, you have to harvest off the emotions of others right? By your very _nature_ you need others to even _exist._ "

" **It just means we are higher up the chain-"**

Torch glared. "Do you _want_ me to eat you?"

Chrysalis glared. " **I am not recalling my agents. And that's final."**

"Then you will not be allowed into the Stargate Program." Luna said, flatly.

Chrysalis chuckled. " **Trust me, I'm getting in. One way or another."** She turned to O'Neill. " **Your race is absolutely fascinating, general. We will meet again one day, and I will be** _ **thrilled**_ **to find out what makes your kind tick."**

Then she walked out.

Yorik yelled at her receding figure. "AND STAY OUT!"

O'Neill frowned. "This could be a bit of a problem-"

"It is our problem General." Twilight said. "We should deal with our own internal affairs. She is not a threat to you, seeing as you are not giving her any access to the stargate or any technology."

"Which we cannot thank you enough for." Celestia said. "You are choosing to give us a boon that we do not deserve. If there's anything we can do in return-"

O'Neill held up a hand. "All you have to do is continue to be friendly and back us up if we ever run into trouble. Other than that, develop on your own. We've given you the basics, now it's up to you. We are now allies with the Associated Nations of Equis. That's all we need."

Celestia bowed, causing more than a few ponies to gasp. "We are in your debt."

Cam nodded. "Yeah, but I get the feeling you're going to save our asses more than a few times in the future. Call it a hunch."

As the meeting was wrapping up, T'pol sat in the corner, frowning.

These people had no sense of protecting a planet's culture - these people should have been left to develop on their own. They would have become something unique. But they were being contaminated.

Their ideas were important, and should be sheltered. The frown deepened.

Celestia had even agreed to the exchange program. The Enterprise was going to leave a few crewmen and scientists behind in Canterlot, and a few Equines would be coming with them. This showed all the signs of a culture that would be trying to change - and lose its identity in the process.

Pinkie walked up to her. "Ah don't worry Polly! Trust me, we've got plenty of culture everyone here would never get! Just look at the proud dragons! The tenacious griffons! The friendly ponies! There's lots of identity here!"

T'Pol briefly wondered how Pinkie knew what she was thinking, but decided it was illogical to continue with that train of thought. "But you could lose all that if you aren't careful-"

"Trust me, we'll be careful!" And Pinkie bounced away, unleashing a party cannon.

T'Pol just stared ahead, contemplating.

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

On an invisible ship, two humanoids spoke with each other.

"They know we're watching them."

"They will ask about us eventually."

"That is unfortunate. It would have been preferable to remain unknown."

"The power shift in this area is too dangerous to ignore."

"We must act quickly before they can truly challenge us."

"Our minds have been working to engineer their downfall."

"I trust it is going well?"

"While young, their technology is proving to be quite the obstacle."

"Have we discovered where they obtained it?"

"Some beings called the Asgard who are all dead now."

"A legacy of sorts. Intriguing."

"Of course. But they are young - they know not how the Galaxy works. We will prevail."

"As always."

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

The official story was that the Asgard committed mass-suicide to keep their technology from falling into the wrong hands.

While they did destroy all their technology, the truth was in fact very different.

On a secret location deep beneath the surface of Earth, if one were to look closely they would find the original Asgard Core, the machine that was the blueprint for the devices that are in every Tau'ri military ship. Each Core was essentially a database of all the Asgard's technology, history, stories, and other information. It was able to understand virtually any command and perform calculations faster than any other computer known to exist.

But there was something special about the original Asgard Core, or the True Core, as it was known to those in the loop about it.

The True Core contained the consciousnesses of most of the Asgard themselves, a number somewhere in the billions. Most were in a type of stasis, unable to do anything. Some were aware and awake - mostly the leaders of the Asgard - and they were able to observe information through the vast networks of the Earth's Internet. They were the ones who found the cloak signature a few months ago. They were a branch of the Tau'ri government that officially didn't exist, and yet held a lot of sway in the events of the world itself.

A select few were allowed to move to the other Cores on Tau'ri ships, serving as a computer and a crewmember. For instance, the consciousness of Thor was on the Enterprise, though only O'Neill was aware of this.

Thor enjoyed the time he got to spend with O'Neill, discussing the nature of Equis and how to proceed. Thor had cautioned against contaminating the Equi, but O'Neill had eventually argued that it was time to try something between giving them all the technology and giving them nothing. Thor admitted that giving them _some_ technology was an interesting idea, but he was unsure how it would pan out. As of yet, the humans were unique in their ability to adapt to new technologies and remain stable.

Now was Thor's first look at the creatures of the surface in question. In the exchange program a unicorn and an earth pony had been sent up to the Enterprise, as well as a female dragon by the name of Cyst. The dragon was loud, obnoxious, and a good two feet taller than a human, but after observing the lavender creature for a few minutes Thor realized that she was actually really smart and observant beneath that shell of hers. She had obviously be sent for a reason.

Then there were the two ponies… Lyra and Bon Bon, apparently chosen because of the friendship they had kicked off with Vala, and not because the two of them were agents of some organization called S.M.I.L.E. Celestia had told O'Neill in private what the two of them were, and O'Neill communicated it to Thor. O'Neill had said he didn't mind having a couple of agents on his ship as long as they didn't try to do anything overly sneaky.

Thor quickly decided that the unicorn, Lyra, was not likely to do anything underhanded. She legitimately appeared to be having a good time and simply enjoying herself.

The other one though… Thor had seen that look on O'Neill many times. It was the look that said "I'm going to go do things anyway."

Thor sent a message to a screen right next to Bon Bon.

 _-Careful, agent. You are not here as a spy - you are here as an ambassador for your people. Do not let your curiosity get the better of you.-_

Bon Bon frowned, but nodded slowly.

Thor hoped that'd be enough.

"Bon Bon! They're teaching me how to play poker!"

"Poker…?"

"It's a _human game!_ Come on! Enjoy the fun!"

Thirty minutes later Bon Bon had cleaned them all out. She smirked. "Guess I'm good at bluffing."

Vala blinked. "I'm still wondering how you hold the cards."

Bon Bon shrugged. "It's just how hooves work."

"ATTENTION CAMPERS!" O'Neill called over the ship. "We're heading home! Be back at Earth in a few days. Let's not drive the visitors crazy before we get there. We want to be home by Christmas people."

The sound of Jer'll losing an arm wrestling match with Cyst. Cyst lept up in victory, only to hit her head on the ceiling.

Lyra and Vala laughed. Bon Bon sighed.

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

Two weeks later, Lyra and Bon Bon were in London, part of their grand tour of Earth that Daniel had decided to organize. Lyra had liked the archaeologist/diplomat, and was sorry he couldn't accompany them on most of the tour. Instead they had Layton with them, who needed to check in on his home town anyway.

Layton and Lyra had gone back and forth with crazy conspiracy theories for hours, driving Bon Bon crazy. They would argue, debate, agree, disagree, and laugh about what regular people though the world was like. But that wasn't't the worst part. The worst part was that they were starting to make _sense_ to Bon Bon. Which was terrifying.

Lyra levitated out a camera, snapping a picture of Big Ben. "You guys make some interesting buildings." Lyra commented.

"That clock is ancient and a part of history." Layton commented. He began to delve into a retelling of Big Ben's history that Lyra absorbed like a sponge and Bon Bon only half listened to. She scanned the crowd. Many looked at the two ponies with uncertainty, but not violence. Those that did look with violence knew that there were soldiers nearby in case things went wrong. Still others came up to them and talked to them, from reporters, to curious bystanders, to people who wanted to know exactly how Lyra's horn worked.

"Well, we call it magic, though I hear that's probably not what you would call it." Lyra would say, then she would try to remember what she had been told it was. Layton or Bon Bon wound eventually provide the answer of "Thaumic Manipulation" and Layton would usually go on to say that it might as well be magic because it was so poorly understood.

As they walked through london, Lyra noticed something. She decided to ask Layton about it.

"Professor, why are there pictures of a fat red man everywhere? Is he the leader of this place or something?"

Layton laughed. "Ah, no, it's simply Christmas time. Two days from now we celebrate and give each other gifts. The man is Santa Claus - a bit of a mascot for Christmas if you will, even if he had almost nothing to do with its origin."

Lyra's ears perked up. "What is it's origin?"

"You are quite the anthropologist aren't you? Well, it's actually a religious holiday that celebrates a core belief of many people. That roughly two-thousand years ago the son of God was born to save the world from their sins. Though nowadays only practitioners of Christianity actually celebrate this - the rest of the world has adapted it as a bit of a gift-giving extravaganza. And a marketing campaign to get people to buy things. If you'll look all the pictures of old Santa are actually advertisements. For instance, the classic Coke commercial." He pointed at a billboard.

Lyra nodded. "Fascinating… what other religions are here?"

Layton chuckled. "I'm not really qualified, but I suppose I can give a summary. Christianity is the most common, the belief that there is a single, personal God who cares about everything we say and do and sent his son to die for our sins. Islam also worships God, though they treat him as more of a transcendent and unknowable being. Then there's Hinduism, whose followers worship many gods as an aspect of a being of unity, and believe in a cycle of reincarnating souls. Then Buddhism, which is more of a way of life that strives to reach spiritual enlightenment, rather than worshiping anything. Then of course there's a large portion who don't subscribe to any religion. You probably should spend some time talking to religious leaders to find out more."

Lyra nodded. "And how are these various groups reacting to us?"

Layton put his hand behind his head. "That's… difficult to ascertain. Buddhists and Hindus don't have any problems with your existence. Islams and Christians and another God-focused religion - the Jews - are all very split on what you mean for their worldview. Some view you as not worth talking about. Others think you need to be converted and saved. Still others think you have already been saved - or will be saved - by some other means. It's produced quite a turmoil and there are many arguments on the matter."

"...Should I be worried about them?"

"I wouldn't think so. Regardless of their beliefs, only the most radical would attempt to kill you simply for your existence. Most are actually quite kind people."

Bon Bon looked up. "It's starting to snow."

"We don't schedule the weather on our world Mrs. Bon. It just happens. Though there is some predictability to it at times."

Lyra smiled. "I like this city. Big - bigger than Manehattan even - and full of such amazing human history and culture! It's thrilling!"

"Seems a bit dreary to me." Bon Bon noted.

"Oh lighten up Bon Bon, have some fun. Let's celebrate Christmas!" She turned to Layton. "Er… how do we do that?"

"Well… simply put you get gifts for your loved ones and friends, wrap them in a box, and then on Christmas give them to each other. Until Christmas you would usually put the gifts under an evergreen tree, and the tree itself would be decorated with all sorts of ornaments. Though since you don't have a house I don't think you'll have a tree… or really a place to celebrate it. You two are just in the hotel for the week."

Lyra shrugged. "We'll figure something out. What are you doing for Christmas professor?"

"I'll be spending some of it with my parents, stopping to drop by Luke's place afterwards. No I don't think I'll have time to do anything with you, but I'll drop if by chance I get any. Now I am afraid I have things to tend to. Feel free to wander around the city. Try not to lose the guards, they are trying to protect you."

Bon Bon huffed.

Lyra levitated her "funds" card out of her saddlebags. The card had been loaded with some currency for her to spend on whatever she wished.

What to get Bon Bon without her noticing…

"What are you doing with your horn?" A young woman said, walking up.

Lyra sighed before putting on a smile. If they answered her questions, she should keep answering theirs. "We call it magic, though apparently that definition is off. Bon Bon?"

"You're the unicorn - explain it."

Lyra rolled her eyes. "We access something called the Thaumic Fabric with our minds and bend the world around us. No I don't understand exactly what it is or how it works but the sciency types are working on finding out the answer."

"What exactly can you do with your magic?" The woman asked.

"Well all unicorns can do levitation… I myself can make musical tones as well, make bright lights, and a few other things. Experienced unicorns can make objects function on their own, teleport, and control forces of nature."

The woman nodded. "Very interesting… Thanks for the insight!"

"Your welcome!" Lyra grinned. The woman walked off.

Bon Bon frowned. "I… got a weird vibe from her…"

Lyra shrugged. "So did I. Maybe she's just weird. Like me!"

Bon Bon rolled her eyes and the two of them continued walking around London.

Some time later, a man walked up to them, brown trench coat trailing. "Oh Equi! How fascinating!" He said, stopping himself in his tracks. "Pleased to make your acquaintance! Are you the first from your world to arrive?"

Bon Bon blinked. "Yes… how did you know about us?"

"Internet." The man said without a second thought. "What're your names if you don't mind me asking?"

"Lyra and Bon Bon." Lyra offered, smiling. "What are they saying about us on the internet?"  
"Oh just a few things, how you seem to have magical powers and-" His eyes lit up like he'd just remembered something. "Wait. Terribly sorry ladies, have to dash. Have business to attend to. See you around I'm sure!"

"Wait! Who are you?" Lyra called out.

"I'm the Doctor!" The Doctor yelled back, dashing through London. "Merry Christmas!"

Why was it always Christmas time when things decided to happen… He grunted, dashing through London. He had to get to her before-

"Listen up citizens of London, there is a side to this world you don't know about, and we can no longer stay in the shadows! It is imperative that we come out into the open on our own terms-"

Why did people always have to give a speech before getting to the point. He flipped out his sonic screwdriver, scanning for thaumic signatures. He wasn't exactly sure what he was going to _do_ but he would figure something out on the fly. He was good at planning after all.

Well let's see… there was one in the building over there and one charging right at him-

He blinked as Lyra leapt right over him, horn glowing. A minty-green shield appeared right in front of the woman just as a bolt of energy sailed towards her.

Bon Bon ran past. "Check all nearby buildings!" She called into her radio, signalling the soldiers. "Someone was almost assassinated!"

The Doctor blinked. Apparently he didn't need to do anything-

"Behind you!" He yelled, just in time for Lyra to deflect a blast coming from behind. The woman nodded in thanks, standing up.

"See how they wish me to remain silent! But I will not stand! I will show you all!" She took a stick out of her pocket and raised it to the sky. It seemed to glow.

Then a bolt of lightning came down from the sky, hitting her wand directly.

The Doctor yelled. "No! NO!" Bon Bon winced, and Lyra just got angry.

"What was she trying to DO that she deserved to die?" Lyra yelled, looking around. She pointed a hoof at the Doctor. "You know, don't you?"

"Yes. But she needed to be the one to tell you."

"Tell us what?"

The Doctor sighed. "This world has many secrets Lyra. They need to come out on their own terms. It is not my place to reveal them. I am sorry."

She frowned. She lit her horn, scanning him. "...you're not human."

"Gallifreyan." The Doctor said, smiling sagely. "I'm so sorry I couldn't stop them."

Lyra frowned. "Why were you even trying? Don't you have to-"

"Doesn't mean I can't push them in the right direction can I?" The Doctor said, walking off. Lyra stared at him as he walked into a blue phone box.

She was the only one who saw the thing vanish, seeing as Bon Bon had taken command of the soldiers (nobody was questioning her) and organizing an investigation already. Everyone was in a bit too much of a panic to see it.

"Huh." Was all Lyra said, before turning her attention to Bon Bon.

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

"Yesterday evening in Lower London, a woman by the name of Emeline Urbola was killed by a strike of lightning as she was trying to reveal something to the populace of London. She was speaking to a Christmas Crowd about revealing something, something she indicated she was apart of. After a few weapons of unknown origin were fired and blocked by heroic Equi Lyra Heartstrings, Mrs. Urbola produced a wand-like object. Almost instantly the lightning struck her, killing her instantly. Authorities believe this to be some kind of attack made with unknown alien technology, and they are working around the clock to find those responsible. They have come out openly saying they doubt the lightning strike was natural, even though they know of no such technology that could simply create one. We now to go our interview with Lyra Heartstrings-"

"I met her literally a few seconds before the attack - she asked me how my unusual powers worked. I told her I didn't really understand how I was able to levitate things like I'm levitating this microphone right now, and I told her that some unicorns could do other things. That was apparently all she needed to hear as it wasn't much later when we came across her giving the speech. I used my horn to raise a shield to protect her from the bullets - Bon Bon ordered the guards to search for the attacker - but I didn't see the lightning strike coming. I'm sorry, I couldn't do anything. My first visit to Earth, and I failed to help someone…"

"Don't worry Miss Heartstrings, you acted valiantly. You have become a bit of a celebrity to be honest, an example of an alien risking her life for a human they barely knew. You've done a lot in helping Earth adapt to your existence, believe it or not."

"I suppose that's a good thing."

An old hand shut off the TV, frowning.

"She really does have magic powers. And her society uses them openly." His companion said.

"This is very concerning…" The old man responded. "How are we going to remain hidden?"

"There are some who want the Statute repealed-"

"We cannot have that." The old man said, furrowing his eyebrows. "We must not allow our existence to be known. Our world is our world - and it is not meant to mix with theirs."

"But the unicorn's society obviously does it. I've looked it up, only unicorns have controllable magic. The others are always normal."

"That is their way. Not ours. Make sure you know your place."

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

 _ **WARP SECTOR**_

IMPERIUM OF MAN: ENEMY TACTICAL REPORT: ORI.

Praise to the Emperor.

The analysis of Ori tactical capabilities is concerning.

Thier footsoldiers wear simple armor that is unable to deflect more than one armor-piercing round. Their weapon, an energy staff, is not all that powerful and unless fired en masse is easy to deal with. The vast majority of these soldiers are extremely devout to their false gods, though most can be broken with simple torture methods. Some will even begin to doubt the power of their gods afterward. Testing has revealed them to be close to human - but not quite. It is unknown exactly what this means since they are positive they were created by their false gods, and have no explanation as to why we are so similar beyond wild guesses. The most common of their explanations is that we are the children of the enemies of their gods - the False Ones. This is obviously false, but the idea that the Ori have enemies is worth looking into.

Their Priors are powerful psykers who are given powers over the Warp by their false gods. Observed effects include time dilation, forcefield generation, technological manipulation, biological influence, reviving, removing mutation, mental attacks, and energy creation. The Priors are significantly less common than footsoldiers, indicating it takes some energy to create one. They are not impossible to take out - shooting them while they are unaware is rather easy since they have no protection aside from their psyker powers. Thier protections are not able to withstand sustained fire from all directions either. In combat it is strongly recommended to take out all Priors as fast as possible, possibly even using one of our own psykers to do so. Priors have a built-in self-destruct mechanism, so questioning them has born little fruit. Torture is pointless as they just burst into flames. All we have been able to obtain on their outlook is that they view us as either disciples to be converted to serve the Ori, or inferiors who must be wiped out. Priors also serve as the religious leaders of Ori society, being their connection to the false gods themselves.

Their ships have extremely powerful shields and a drive that uses something other than the Warp to move. This drive's top speed is unknown, but it is much faster than any other ship we have come across. Their weapon is also extremely powerful, but omnidirectional and slow. Our ships far outclass theirs in terms of physical bulk and weapons variety - once their shields are breached their ships do not take long to go down.

Recently, they seem to have developed a new type of ship larger than the others. It is essentially a ring lined with their cannons. The ring-class Ori vessel is much better suited for combat, and is a great threat. Tactics for dealing with a ring-class is to stay out of its plane-of-fire as much as possible so it cannot hit multiple ships at once.

The glowing energy source both ships use is from a unknown source, though interrogations have revealed them to be turned on only by Priors. In fact, the ships themselves are apparently all commanded by a Prior, since their psyker powers evidentially allow for more coordination with the controls.

They have made use of ancient xeno devices known as stargates spread out apparently across the entire galaxy by some unknown ancient xeno race. They use these devices to move footsoldiers to planets unexpectedly. It is ordered that all stargates be destroyed instantly upon discovery by any means, though they are extremely resilient and it takes impressive firepower to render one useless.

They have evidentially built a tremendous gate - known as a worldgate - between our territory and Ork worlds. We have attempted to siege the object multiple times as it is effectively their base of operations, but all attacks have failed. New strategies are being considered for taking out their way of entering this space.

We have learned that they come from a cluster of stars just outside the galaxy. We even know which one, and a few scout ships have been sent out but they will not arrive for decades. It is expected that it would take a few weeks for the Ori ships themselves to make the journey, hence why they are using their worldgate.

Lastly, we come to the false gods themselves, the beings known as the Ori. If the false gods were not backing their people up, it would not be that difficult to wipe their followers out. As it is, these false gods have immense power greater even than that of the greatest sorcerer, and easily outclass _any_ kind of ship. There are no known ways to harm them beyond distraction. They are extremely intelligent, and vary drastically in personality. Some enjoy mocking us and the Emperor, toying with our ships. Others are methodical in their destructions of our fleets. Still others prefer to mentally attack, defeating fleets without destroying any ships - similar to chaos corruption, though without any sort of worship. Due to how they never seem to force others to worship them directly, we have come to the conclusion that they need _willing_ worship for some reason - most likely because they draw power from it.

It is urgent that we find some manner of fighting against these false gods. It is of utmost importance that the general populace is not made aware the false gods actually exist. May the Emperor guide us to victory.

[][][][][][][][][][][][][]

Ifrit laughed.

There was no hope for any of the forces in this galaxy - none. They were all putting up extremely pitiful fights. Didn't they realize that nothing could stop the power of the Ori? That it was all hopeless to deny their right to be worshipped?

They could obtain enough followers here to face off against the Alterans! There would be no stopping them! Nothing in their way!

...Well as soon as those pesky Chaos Gods were taken care of but that was an issue to be dealt with later. Right now they needed more followers.

And they were rising in number exponentially. Conversion was difficult in some cases - The Orks and Dark Eldar seemed to be physically unable to follow the ways of Origin for instance. But they would just be wiped out in time. The Eldar themselves were smart enough not to declare war on the Ori - their farseers had evidentially seen disaster down that route. The Eldar were instead playing a bit of a political game, discussing possible compromises with the Ori and "self-converting" their worlds to the Ori. Ifrit knew they were stalling for time, pretending to comply and convert on their own time schedule. Ifrit didn't care - he could be patient, and they had other things to deal with. Let them play their silly games…

The Humans and the Tau were the main targets for conversion - the humans usually needed to be roughed up before they would give in (and even then sometimes their devotion to their Emperor was too much.) The Tau were interesting - they were open to new ideas and would often "convert" without a fight, but no matter what anyone did they would always do what a member of the Ethereal Caste told them. It was as if it was hard-wired into their brains - and perhaps it was. At the very least, if an Ethereal was converted, the conversion was real. The Tau allied races were a bit different, though they usually just went with whatever served The Greater Good, and most came to realize that Origin could be seen as that. This wasn't to say it was easy: the official Ethereal command has took a stand refuting the Ori and Origin, though they were still open for a peaceful co existence if it was possible.

They had left the Tau for now, they were busy with the humans and another enemy - the Necrons that appeared around randomly. They were the most advanced race in the area - and the most creative. Ifrit had personally observed innovation in their ships as time went on.

He and Emir were currently leading a fleet to take out a Necron world - the machines were sentient and therefore would still give the Ori power by worship. It would be interesting to see what new tricks the Necrons had this time - something that completely ignored shields? A new weapon? A-

He sensed a surge of tremendous power. He felt Emir sense it as well. Thier overconfident demeanor fell instantly, and they raised their defenses - something they rarely did. As the Necron ships came to meet them, they saw… _something_ standing on the hull of the ship, exposed to the vacuum of space. It seemed vaguely humanoid, but energy was swirling around it.

"What _is_ that?" Emir asked, concern evident in her voice.

Ifrit frowned. "Something we need to take out." He generated a beam of energy and fired it right at the creature.

The creature dodged the attack, and came sailing right at the two Ori, energy tendrils shooting out and impacting the two of them. They actually _felt_ it, letting out calls of pain.

Ifrit roared. "THIS CANNOT STAND!" A column of brilliant red fire shot out from his core, burning the creature on all sides. The creature gave no indication it even felt it, attacking once more as Emir shot it with a particle beam. _This_ seemed to do something, causing the creature to twitch.

Ifrit doubled the effort, generating an omnidirectional beam of positrons inside the creature, trying to tear it apart from the inside. It was surprisingly resilient, and managed to get off a few more pulses before exploding.

Emir and Ifrit both realized that they'd actually had to put _effort_ into that. That was… surprising. They never had to put effort into anything.

Ifrit suddenly realized that the Necron ships had taken up a circular formation around them, and were trying to completely ignore the fire from the Ori ships. He got out of there quickly, but Emir was not so lucky.

A ring of energy coursed through the Necron ships for a fraction of a second before a ring of light was sent towards Emir, encircling her in some kind of energy Ifrit didn't recognize. But he heard her scream as she was bound, her energy being fractured off into millions of pieces. Her screams were cut suddenly short by a burst of neon green light.

Emir was no more.

Ifrit roared, creating a black hole in the center of the Necron ships, and spinning it in such a way as to lock them all in a time dilation field. Then he slowly _compressed_ the field, watching as the ships slowly began to buckle under stress, before being torn into particle shreds by the black hole itself.

Ifrit turned to the planet of Necrons, which had more ships coming out. He sensed no more energy signatures.

He _threw_ the black hole at the planet, the round world quickly being devoured by the immense source of gravity. Ifrit then noticed that he was flickering - he had used _way_ too much energy in this confrontation.

He ordered the fleet to retreat. There was nothing left for them here.

But this development was extremely concerning. Those Necrons were going to _pay._

[][][][][][][][][]

The Eldar Farseer looked. He didn't like looking, but he felt he had to.

He saw the Necrons of all people putting up the best fight against the Ori, but eventually even they would fall. Always the Ori or Chaos becoming dominant, and then the Tyranids would eventually just eat everything.

Then there was that timeline where someone awakened the God Emperor of Mankind… The Eldar Farseer shuddered at that thought. It always surprised him how the mon-keigh somehow managed to be the source of most of the hardship.

The Eldar needed to find some way to avert the fall of their civilization. They were stalling for time - and they knew the Ori knew they were stalling for time. The Ori simply didn't care enough at the moment to force their hand.

They needed something… An ally perhaps, or a way to combat the Ori directly…

If only they knew how the Necron's anti-C'tan weapons worked.

[][][][][][][][][]

Try as they might, the government of Mistral had failed to stop the Ork incursion. The Orks had continued their bloody charge across Wyvern, smashing and pillaging just for the heck of it.

And now the Orks were _sailing_ right for Vale, somehow knowing exactly where the Kingdom was. Vale knew they were coming, and was preparing to meet them with a force of considerable size. Vale had sent out requests for assistance in combatting the Ork threat, but Mistral had already exhausted too many resources in the failed campaign. Atlas has promised to send support eventually, but it was becoming obvious that such support probably would not arrive in time. There had been no response from Vacuo.

So the people of Vale were fighting alone, to protect their Kingdom from the greenskins. Soldiers were flanked by huntsmen, and mechs stood tall, ready to defend their Kingdom. They were never given a break - even while they waited for the Orks to arrive, Grimm would attack. It was brutal, but they needed to maintain a front to keep the Orks away.

The moment they heard the "WAAAAAAGH!" they knew what was coming. They had heard the reports. Bikes flew through the ranks, plowing into dozens of soldiers. The hunters were prepared this time, using their many abilities to combat the Orks with fire, water, ice, giant hammers, and other unusual implements.

One huntsman stood out from the rest. He had two leathery wings sprouting out of his back, as well as a long, red, scaly tail. His eyes seemed to be on fire as he plowed through hoards of Orks with his claw-like weapons. Flames of all colors danced around him, blasting off in all directions.

"Nice one Gradient!" A fellow soldier yelled as she socked an Ork on the head. "How many you gotten so far?"

"I don't count." He said as he burnt several more with an unusual purple fire. "But I know my number is higher than yours, Chestnut."

Chestnut laughed as she slapped aside another Ork. "So if one were to assume that I killed twenty-six, you've probably gotten over a hundred."

"Safe bet." Gradient said as he flew into the air, leaving a column of fire beneath him. The Orks yelled as they were burnt to a crisp.

"Ya know, sometimes I think those wings of yours are cheating."

Gradient shrugged, backhanding an Ork on some kind of flying machine. "They can fly as well. I fail to see the problem."

"I'm referring to your advantage over _us_ Gradient."

Gradient saw an Ork gun pointing at Chestnut. "Chestnut!" He yelled, swooping down and picking her up. The shot hit him in the leg. He roared in pain, the roar of a dragon heard over the din of battle. He turned to Chestnut. She nodded. He dropped her on the ground, as she used her semblance to create quite the crater.

Ignoring his wound, Gradient flew down into the battle, leaving trails of fire in the Ork ranks, ignoring as other bullets continued to hit him left and right. He lit the landscape on rainbow flames before he finally crashed into something hard and everything went black.

[][][][][][][][][][][][][]

Ruby tensed. This was bad.

The news had just come in. The front had failed. The Orks were coming _here._ Bad. Bad. Bad. Bad….

She took out her weapon. She was probably going to be asked to defend Vale, even though she hadn't even finished her huntress training. She wasn't sure she had it in her…

But she was going to _try._

"Come on team RWBY! Let's train! Weiss, make a green Ork dummy to beat up."

"Ruby-"

"No buts! We need some training in. Ork dummy!"

Yang chuckled nervously. Blake was just silent.

Sure enough, the next day, the students were standing on the walls of Vale, looking out at the Grimm wilderness. Beacon could be seen in the distance, a literal beacon of hope.

Everyone was ready to stand their ground to stop the Orks from taking Vale. They knew they were unlikely to win - their huge force had already been broken through. What remained wasn't anywhere near that strong. It was just a basic defense force and some students.

But they were going to try anyway. Everyone held their weapons, ready to take out the ugly greenskins.

The WAAAAAAGH was heard, and the ground trembled. The green horde could be seen amassing towards them like some amorphous blob. Shots rang out between the two forces, bullets flying and giant turrets shooting dust-infused lasers at the gigantic green mob. The damage was significant, but there were simply too many Orks.

Some of the Ork devices began to hit the wall. The large stone shook. BAM. Entire speeders were being rammed into the wall in an attempt to breach it. Cracks began to form in the stone.

Ruby was shooting as best she could, but there wasn't much she could do. She saw weapons go flying, and people she knew were fighting alongside her. She winced as a fellow student - what was his name again? - fell to an Ork bullet.

Then she felt a tremendous rumble as a hole opened up in Vale's wall. The Orks WAAAAAGH'd in celebration, and began to stream in. Ruby looked on in horror.

The Orks' celebration was short lived. A burst of rainbow fire descended from the sky, obliterating those who had made the hole. A dragon Fanus spread his wings, fire dancing all around. He roared.

In the sky, Ruby could see ships arriving. She whooped. "The Atlas fleet! It's early!"

Sure enough Atlas had made good on its promise to send help. The highly advanced warships blasted the Orks with Dust-infused energy, making sure they were unable to reach the wall any more. The horde was corralled by the Atlas ships, being burned to a crisp from the outside. The Orks managed to collect themselves just enough to take down seven of the airships, but they were overwhelmed. Meanwhile, inside Vale the dragon Fanus was making _sure_ no Ork managed to get inside and kill any civilians. Fire was flung everywhere, and roars filled the air. The Orks didn't stand a chance.

The battle for Vale ended in victory. Ruby cheered, and her team cheered with her.

[][][][][][][][][]

Kellar was a world on the fringes of the Imperium - and three months ago it was captured and converted by the Ori. Resentment was high for the Ori overlords, but the inhabitants had to admit that they weren't being brutalized as long as they cooperated.

The Space Marine Kerin Luther did not like this one bit. This rubbed him the wrong way. Xenos were evil creatures that needed to be eradicated. And yet, here were some creatures that were probably more human than he was, and they were showing mercy in war. He growled inwardly.

He really hated the fact that he was taken prisoner. Worse, that he was allowed to keep his weapons and power armor. He was allowed to look as regal as a Space Marine should - and as long as he didn't stir up trouble the Priors let him be. He was literally the only Space Marine that could be convinced not to blow everything up.

And he knew full well why they were keeping him alive: they wanted to convert him. They wanted to prove that they could break even the Imperium's strongest warriors.

He had already tried to kill them all once - after cutting through five Priors they cut him down, and then simply revived him later. They wanted him to see the world they were creating. They wanted him to like it.

That's why he was determined _not_ to like it. Luther refused to give in. He couldn't fight them, and he couldn't kill himself. So he'd just make it blatantly obvious that he was not on board with this.

His resolve began to weaken about a month ago, when he realized that the Priors were healing everyone they could and performing miracles all around. They created a simple society, slowly working most of the technology out of Kellar's infrastructure. They held meetings praising the Ori and encouraging the people to become better people and follow Origin.

Luther had to admit there were only a few things he and Origin disagreed on. Worshipping the Ori was one, and the acceptance of xenos was another. But the things about compassion, helping others, and wisdom… He identified with those, even if many of his fellow Marines didn't. Unlike many, he actually respected his place as a defender of humanity. He wasn't truly above them - he was just a man with a special position in society. All under the Emperor.

He frowned. They were losing this engagement with the Ori - it would be long and drawn out, but the Ori themselves would probably win, he hated to admit. There were no defenses they could think of against the powerful beings. So many were going to die in vain fighting them… So many…

"Why not lower the pointless deaths?" An ethereal voice said from behind him. He whirled around to be face to face with… a ball of fire. Not a raging fire, like he had seen during Prior demonstrations before, but a calm fire.

"You… you are an Ori." He said.

"Yes. I am known as Iris." It was obviously a she, though there were no features aside from the voice to determine this.

"Why are you not-"

"An angry raging fire? That… just isn't my style, frankly. My brothers and sisters may like to stir up loyalty through fear, and while that is effective, it can't help everyone. You for instance. You feel despair, sorrow, and loss - but you do not fear us. I can see it in you. If I attacked you, you would fight back, even though you know you would lose."

"That is true."

"What I am asking, is why not stop all this pointless death? You are a type of hero among your people - you could show them the way."

"I will not defy my Emperor."

"Your Emperor is the Emperor of Mankind, is he not?"

"Yes. All humanity falls under him."

"Do you want to know a secret?"

Luther was intrigued. "What secret?"

"We used to be a human race ourselves."

Luther blinked. "What?"

"Long ago, the galaxy only had a handful of races in it. We were among those - back then we were known as the Alterans. We covered the galaxy with stargates, rising to amazing heights. But our civilization eventually fell, but we managed to create a race that would take up our mantle. That race was made in our image - humans. While we found out how to become beings of energy, we also made humanity the most common race across the galaxy. Humans are not only found in Imperium space, Luther. They are everywhere."

Luther nodded. This was new information to him, but he did recall a few reports on humans being on planets with no connection to Holy Terra at all. This did provide an explanation. "What are you getting at?"

"Your God Emperor is on the brink of ascending to our plane of existence. We have determined this. He, for all practical purposes, _is_ an Ori. It's that throne you have him on that's keeping him from attaining the final step. And with all your devout worship, he will probably be the most powerful of us."

Luther's eyes widened. "How can you know this?"

Iris's flames flashed slightly. "I am a being of immense power. Together, we can know many things. While none of us have been to Holy Terra yet, we do get a lot from reports and files. We have analyzed them and determined what exactly they are. It is our conclusion."

Luther frowned. "What do you suggest I do?"

"Become a Prior." She said flatly. "Serve us and your emperor. Lead your people to free the God-Emperor from his throne prison and let him take up his mantle as a true god amongst us. I guarantee you we will defeat Chaos."

Luther frowned. "But you allow xenos…"

"Look around you. All those we bring with us are human. Xenos are useful for worship, but we get the most power from beings closer to us. After we conquer them, we can slowly make them human. Give them the glory of the experience." She looked deep into him. "You can lead your people to a brighter future, and set your God Emperor on the path he needs. And upon death, we grant you ascension. I myself was once a follower of the Ori, gifted with the power to live alongside them."

Luther was silent. She had a point. If he rallied the people, there would be less killing. The God Emperor would get the glory he deserved. He would be freed from his prison. And the entire galaxy would become dominated by humanity. It was tantalizing.

"I shall have to think about what you've said." He said. Then he left.

Iris smiled. Tell just enough of the truth…

"You're manipulating his mind." Another Ori said, appearing.

"Yes I am, your point?"

"Forced worship does not empower us."

"Ah, but you fail to see something. He will empower others. He will bring others to the light and our power."

"Why did you not just flat out alter his mind then? It would have removed the need for all this subterfuge."

"I don't want him to be aware he's being manipulated. I want him to appear more genuine to the people. He's going to become a Space Marine Prior, and he will change the Imperium forever." She smirked. "You will all learn that smashing everyone with fear is not always the way."

The two of them vanished in a puff of smoke.

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

In interstellar space, there was a lone Ori ship on it's way to meet with an Eldar world that was "cooperating" with Origin. It was to be a simple routine mission. There would be no complications. There were no Necron forces in the area and they made sure to avoid Dark Eldar space.

The Prior, Yer, twirled her hair. She was a tad bored, honestly. There wasn't really any preaching to be done on the ship, and she found that simply talking to anyone who wasn't a Prior aggravating.

So when the ship dropped out of hyperspace for apparently no reason, her hopes went up. Perhaps something was about to happen? Something interesting!

She instructed the ship's systems to scan the area. It complied, revealing hundreds of ships surrounding her from all sides. They were all biological in nature, and varied extremely in shape, size, and form. They all seemed vaguely bug-like.

"Tyranids…" She murmured. She instructed the ship to leave quickly, there were far too many to take care of. The ship, however, was unable to comply.

The Tyranid ships began to close in like a swarm of locusts, swirling around the Ori ship and firing at its shields with a strange biological glowing goo. The shields were holding, and Yer was instructing the weapon to fire, but it was making little progress in the thousands of swarming Tyranids.

She frowned - they weren't destroying the ship outright. From what she'd heard, this was atypical Tyranid behavior. The only times they didn't destroy something was when they wanted a biological sample of some kind, and there wasn't anything interesting on the ship…

...Well aside from her of course.

Her eyes widened. She could not let them take her! ...but she wasn't particularly fond of the idea of self-destructing either. She'd show these bugs who was boss.

She felt the atmosphere escaping - she didn't care. She was going to burn these things to the depths of hell. They would not take her.

The first one that found her looked like a grub with millions of teeth. She simply made it melt with a burst of energy from her staff.

Pathetic bugs. She smiled. As more and more streamed in, each one unique in its own way, she blew them to pieces. When one with a reflective bug shell came in, she would resort to psychic pushing to keep them at bay. She laughed at them.

Then she got a headache. It was as if her connection to her powers was becoming harder to access… Like something was trying to block her…

She tried launching a bullet again - nothing happened.

In a panic, she tried to self-destruct, but it failed. She felt an extremely powerful mental presence closing in on her as the Tyranids began to tear her to pieces.

She screamed as she was harvested.

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

The war dragged on for several more months, but Mistral, Vale, and Atlas banded together to make their campaigns much more effective. Gradient became the media's favorite, the Fanus war-hero who defended Vale in its time of need, and who continued to defend the world of Remnant from Orks and Grimm alike. He defended all with his colorful array of cleansing fire.

Vacuo kept itself out of the war, pretending like the Orks didn't exist. This all changed when a group of Orks landed on their shores, and begun to attack. The other three Kingdoms came to Vacuo's aid, despite the Kingdom never responding to their pleas for help. This simple act cemented the Kingdoms of Remnant closer together.

Months of fighting passed, and the Orks were obviously losing the engagement. They had lots of fancy toys, but so did the people of Remnant. Dust proved to be extremely valuable, and the Schnee company grew even larger.

In contrast, thanks to Gradient making anti-terrorism speeches left and right, the White Fang began to fall because of the war. Gradient, a Fanus, became the face of all Fanus everywhere, and he urged everyone to live in peaceful coexistence. Prejudice against Fanus began to decline, and the numbers in the White Fang began to dwindle.

The world of Remnant became more united thanks to the horde of Orks.

The last Ork conflict occurred on the shores closest to Atlas. It was a curb-stomp battle, the Orks were completely slaughtered by the high-tech defenses of the northern city.

Gradient gave a speech about victory, and how all the kingdoms should strive to do better and work for the betterment of all humanity - including Fanus. Some extremists attempted to assassinate him during the speech, but he survived the attack _and_ completed his speech with a hole in his wing. He became even more of a worldwide hero after that.

All that remained was trying to figure out exactly what the future of Remnant would be…

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

Gradient walked into the lab. "Glim, why exactly did you ask for me? You know I've been rather busy lately. Nothing but press-"

"I thought you'd welcome the escape from the spotlight." A tiny, blue haired woman said.

"I do, but if I don't provide a good excuse upon my return there will be issues." He furled his wings. "What did you call me here for?"

"I just thought you'd like to know exactly what's happening with the Ork technology program."

Gradient raised his eyebrows. He was curious - even if technology was never his strong suit it was interesting. "What have we found?"

"That Ork technology doesn't work if it's not in the hand of an Ork. We cannot fire their guns - and upon inspection it doesn't seem like they should be able to fire. But they can - even if we disable them somehow. The startling discovery is that their technology works because _they believe it can."_

Gradient shook his head. "That doesn't make any sense…"

"Of course it doesn't! That's why it's so weird!" She grinned. "The Schnee Company has figured out that some Ork devices can be coated in special Dust to activate them, but the process is long, grueling, and difficult. And as we all know Dust doesn't function outside the atmosphere, so their crashed spacecraft will be of little use to us… Though I am hopeful that we can find new things."

"Did we ever figure out why the Ork's were here?"

"Accident." She said. "We interrogated them and, after learning their extremely simplistic language, figured out that they ended up here by a course miscalculation. They were apparently fighting some war just for the heck of it and decided "we crashed, why not fight these humans?" They're very stupid." She frowned. "We did manage to get some information out of them though about where they come from. It's a sector of the galaxy torn by war among several races. We haven't been able to get much, but apparently one of the said races is human or at least human-like."

"That's… strange."

"Yeah. We do have a general location for that area of the galaxy, give or take a few thousand light years. It's nearby." She frowned. "From what I've gotten from the Orks, we do not want to get involved in the wars of that sector. It'd be bad."

"It's not like we're leaving the planet anytime soon." Gradient noted.

"True." Glim said, nodding to herself. "But still, if they find us…"

"We will fight back. And possibly lose, but we won't go down easy."

"I suppose so."

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

"Orilek…"

"WHAT?"

"We wanted to convert them-"

"So? What's one more planet destroyed?" The Ori asked, incredulous.

"You blew up a sun."

"So?"

Ifrit sighed. "I do admit, blowing stuff up is fun, but you've been overly zealous for this past year. You need to realize we are here to gather worship-"

"Who needs worship? We already have power. Let's _use_ it." He cackled.

Ifrit frowned. "Whatever floats your boat, I suppose. Now, shall we teach these Necrons the benefit of religion?"

"Of course!"


	4. T-MINUS 248 YEARS

**_T-MINUS 248 YEARS_**

 ** _(ORBSyndicate)_**

 ** _EARTH THEATRE_**

Bon Bon rammed her muzzle into the desk. "Lyra… We do not use the word "awesome" in reports."

"What? Why not?"

"Because we're agents! We're official! We use _formal_ language!"

Lyra sighed. "This is why you write all the reports-"

"Well I don't have a magic unicorn horn to use this human keyboard so _you_ get to do it."

"With you watching over my shoulder like a hawk." Lyra grinned.

"Yes….." Bon Bon sighed. "Just finish writing it up. I need some air." She trotted out to the hotel balcony, looking out over the city's skyline. They were still in London, opting not to leave and instead help Tau'Ri Intelligence (TRI) investigate what exactly had just happened.

It had been a few weeks, and there had been on leads. No one knew what had attacked her. Lyra had quickly ruled out other unicorns or Priors - she noted that the magic felt "different" than anything she'd felt before. She did mention that it was closer to unicorn magic than a Prior's powers, but it definitely wasn't. Bon Bon often forgot that Lyra had gone to Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns and actually knew quite a lot about how magic felt, how it worked, and how it could be used. In fact Lyra had, on her off time, actually been spending a lot of time theorizing about how magic worked across the universe, and what exactly the thaumic fabric was. She was spouting out arcane jargon Bon Bon didn't know the meaning of on a regular basis. If she wasn't such a conspiracy theorist, she'd probably be a celebrated wizard or scientist at this point.

Bon Bon sighed. Lyra was amazing - but she wasted her potential so much of the time. It was by pure accident she had gotten to become an agent.

Bon Bon breathed in the city air before wrinkling her nose. Erg, why did the Doctor like this place so much? They had found out a bit more information from the Tau'ri government. Apparently he was one of the last remaining members of the Gallifreyans - one of the five races in the Great Alliance - who owned a time machine and spent a lot of time observing interesting events and places. He was considered something of a hero across the entire galaxy, apparently, even if he was a bit ridiculous. The problem was no one knew how to contact him - and given the fact that he travelled through time such a contact might have ended up calling a past version of him which would be useless. So that had turned into a dead end.

Lyra said they needed a planet-wide magic detector, the one Bon Bon held just didn't cut it. There was also the issue that the people may not be on the planet anymore - though after analyzing the speech Bon Bon doubted they were aliens. She actually suspected there were some human magic users living in the shadows of Earth, away from public view. Given the history of "burn the witch" she had uncovered from the history archives, she could understand why. Though since they were going to such lengths to keep themselves a secret, she wasn't sure they deserved to live in secret…

Of course Lyra took it one step up and thought the entire planet was part of some magic conspiracy, but that was Lyra for you.

The general public ate up the story because of her and Lyra's involvement, and Lyra in particular was being showered in praise. But it turned out that they didn't care much for the crime itself and few cared about the investigation beyond the two aliens working on it. News reporters had stopped coming and the world continued to turn as if nothing had happened.

Bon Bon growled. She wanted to find those knuckleheads.

"Bon Bon…" Lyra said, frowning. "Don't take it too hard-"

"I'm Special Agent Sweetie Drops Lyra. I don't just let criminals go! They've hurt someone and I have to keep them from hurting others!"

"You do have to admit though - it isn't our problem. Aside from the magical knowledge I provided, there really isn't much we've added to the investigation." She smiled sadly. "Perhaps we should let them handle it and get back to the Enterprise before it leaves."

Bon Bon glared. "But.. how can you be giving up! We have to-"

"Shhhhh…" Lyra said, hugging Bon Bon. "Look. There's nothing left for us here. Maybe we can come back once Twilight invents some planet-scope magic-scanner, but for now there's not much here for us. We're not agents of Tau'ri."

Bon Bon frowned. "Why are you, of all people, giving up this investigation that _screams_ conspiracy?"

Lyra sat back. "Well, I've already been proven right. And my theory about a magic underground is at least partially accepted. I can consider this a conspiracy theorist victory."

"Lyra, the entire planet is not in on this."

"Oh? Then explain these tertiary arcane readin-" Lyra caught Bon Bon's look. "Sorry. Look, we can't help them further right now. Let's get back on our _actual_ mission while we still can. The Enterprise leaves within a week to explore the lands beyond the Vulcan borders. Let's go meet some new aliens!"

Bon Bon rolled her eyes. "Careful what you wish for Lyra-"

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

"GET OUT OF OUR SPACE REFORM!" The Andorian yelled.

The Reform Prior sighed. "We apologize for entering your space. We were merely on our way to the Vulcans-"

"WHAT DID YOU DO, GET LOST OR SOMETHING?"

"Indeed we have." The Prior said. "If you could direct us to the correct path to Vulcan space-"

"FIND YOUR OWN WAY!"

"But what if we end up deeper in your territory."

"GOD, YOU'RE STUPID." The Andorian yelled.

 _He has no indoor voice…_ The Prior thought. "Perhaps I am, but that is why we wish to contact the Vulcans. An exchange of ideas."

"JUST TURN LEFT AND GO!" The Andorian yelled before cutting the connection.

The Prior sighed before instructing the ship to do just that.

On the other side of the comm, the Andorian fumed. "How DARE they come here!"

"This isn't really our territory, sir-"

"IT WILL BE, REGARDLESS OF WHAT THOSE STUPID TELLARITES AND VULCANS SAY!" The Andorian yelled to his subordinate. The subordinate made plans to report the captain for being utterly stupid.

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

T'pol, Archer, O'Neill, and Bon Bon appeared before the Vulcan Minister, a woman by the name of V'rin.

"Greetings, general, captain, agent." She said, her expression remaining stoic. "I welcome you to Vulcan."

"It is an honor." Archer said.

"Honor is an illogical ideal. We are here simply to improve relations between our peoples."

T'pol nodded in agreement.

O'Neill tried really hard not make a sarcastic remark. And failed. "Well that ruins the fun of the engagement doesn't it?"

"Fun is also an illogical sentiment." V'rin noted. "But one your people seem to cherish, interestingly enough." She turned to Bon Bon. "You are an Equestrian yes?"

"Yes I am, and I come bringing a message directly from Princess Celestia. She hopes for a peaceful and friendly relation between our peoples that will influence the Stars themselves."

"Your attitude is helpful." V'rin said. "We shall strive to keep relations beneficial."

Bon Bon managed not to give the Vulcan a look. Equestrians were an extremely emotional race by nature - it was a bit baffling to find a race that rejected emotions completely. It was a good thing Lyra and her big mouth hadn't been sent down here.

"Now, besides the pleasantries that are insisted upon, what is there to discuss?"

O'Neill brightened up. "We do have a question for you. Have you ever come across unusual cloak signatures? We've been getting a lot of them lately and they seem to be watching everyone. We have them reported with Jaffa ships and Reform ships as well, and there are rumors of the Alliance encountering them. And whenever we notice them and try to make any sort of contact, the signatures just leave.

V'rin blinked, thinking for a moment. Bon Bon squinted her eyes. She knew something.

Judging by the way V'rin was looking back at her, she knew Bon Bon knew she knew. Surprising that a race of emotional suppression could read her face that well.

Their eyes locked for several seconds before V'rin finally spoke.

"We have a possible answer, though our information is very outdated. Long ago, when we were barely making our way out into the stars, there was a conflict over ideals. We, the Vulcans, embraced the ideals of logic and suppression. A splinter group, however, did not. They somehow managed to leave into the Goa'uld sector and avoid the patrols of the False Gods. For decades, we saw their ships at the edges of our vision, always watching us and everything nearby. Then one day, the ships simply stopped appearing. We thought they had fallen to the Goa'uld."

O'Neill snorted. "Never assume your enemies just die. _Ever."_

"Wise words, spoken form experience I can tell. Yes, recently we discovered that they did in fact still exist. We found one of their ships drifting in space. We offered our assistance, and they accepted it. As soon as we completed repairs they activated a cloak and presumably left with all our engineers still on board."

T'pol raised an eyebrow. "Why am I not aware of this?"

"It was deemed classified." V'rin said. "Some of the less controlled members of society might have called for a retaliation. In reality, all we need to do is deny them further assistance should they crop up again."

O'Neill shook his head. "That's… not a good idea. They're watching you. They're watching us. They're obviously planning something and they shouldn't be allowed to just walk around however they want. They don't own the place!"

"The other option would be war, General. They are a violent and manipulative people."

Bon Bon frowned. "No offense minister, but I think we'd like to be the judge of that." She didn't trust this Minister. She was telling them things they had no business knowing, probably for some political reason.

O'Neill rolled his eyes. "Though I doubt anyone watching us so closely can be that nice… Plus they did just kidnap a lot of Vulcans."

Bon Bon nodded. "Fair point… but we should at least find a way to talk to them first…" She blinked. "What are they called anyway?"

"They call themselves the Romulans."

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

Rincewind sighed. He supposed his life would have been incomplete without being cooked over a bunch of burning coals. He turned to look at Death.

"How are you even here? You're supposed to be a manifestation of the magical field. We're not there,"

"I HAVE MY OWN CONSCIOUSNESS THAT CAN BE PLACED INTO A BODY RINCEWIND."

"Oh that makes perfect sense…" He muttered.

"THINK OF IT LIKE A BLUE STOP SIGN."

"I don't even know what a stop sign is."

"THEN… THINK OF IT LIKE A POTATO. A POTATO THAT CUTS OFF ONE OF ITS EYES, AND THAT CUT OFF PART GROWS LEGS AND WALKS OFF TO A PLACE COMPLETELY SEPARATE FROM THE POTATO WITH LITTLE CONNECTION TO THE ORIGINAL POTATO'S CONSIDERABLE POWER."

"What? That doesn't even make any sense!"

"YOU OF ALL PEOPLE SHOULD UNDERSTAND THE POTATO."

Rincewind sighed. "So, what, is death failing to occur on the Disc again?"

"NOT AT ALL. I TOLD YOU, I'M AN EYE OF A POTATO."

"Ugh… You know what why am I even talking to you?"

"BECAUSE YOU CANNOT UNDERSTAND THE LANGUAGE OF THE HUMANS TRYING TO COOK YOU. AND THAT YOU ARE HOPING IF YOU TALK TO SOMETHING ONLY YOU CAN SEE ENOUGH THEY WILL THINK THAT EATING YOU WILL GIVE THEM BRAIN DAMAGE."

"I hate it when you point out the obvious. I hate your existence. Can't you like, _do_ something?"

"YES."

"Will you?"

"NO. AND I DOUBT I'LL NEED TOO ANYWAY."

"Why not?"

BOOM!

"Well uh… I guess those explosives work a _lot_ better than I thought!" The voice of Leonard could be heard. "RINCEWIND! YOU DOWN THERE?"

"Yes I'm down here now get me out of here before you trigger another explosion that tosses me into the fire!"

"Ook."

"DON'T ENCOURAGE HIM LIBRARIAN!" Rincewind yelled.

"Ook."

"Don't you 'ook' me."

Carrot walked in, brandishing his sword. It glinted in the firelight and the cannibalistic people scattered as fast as they could.

"Are you all right Rincewind?"

"All right? I was about to be cooked!"

"Ook."

"IT IS NOT TUESDAY." Rincewind objected.

"ACTUALLY ON THIS PLANET, GIVEN THE STRUCTURE OF THE WEEKS-"

"You can just shut up." Rincewind pointed.

Leonard cocked his head. "Who are you talking to?"

"Death. The guy's a riot."

"Ook." The Librarian lied.

"Oh no you don't stupid ape! I know you can see him too!"

"THE APE IS MOST AMUSED BY YOUR PLIGHT."

"ARGH!" Rincewind yelled, grabbing his hat.

Carrot shrugged. "Well, it seems as if this planet is not in the mood to have any sort of relations with us. We should head back to Ankh Morpork and report."

"And get tossed right back into _another_ death trap…" Rincewind muttered. "This is my life now. Surprisingly, only really different form my old one because the Patrician tries to make me think I'm important. I just want peace and relaxation…"

Leonard shrugged. "I don't think that exists in the universe in any truly fundamental quantity. Perhaps I should invent a relaxation and peace generator…"

"Please do." Rincewind said forlornly.

As the four of them approached the ancient temple the stargate was in, they saw something that surprised them.

There were humanoid aliens with pointy ears walking around, taking readings. One of them had taken out a strange orange crystal artifact and was loading it into a crate.

Rincewind knew one thing to do in this case - hide. And make sure Carrot knew to hide. He gave him a bop on the side of the head and pulled him down. Leonard took out a camera, gave the imp a "speedy cracker" and started recording. He also pulled out an earphone so he could hear what they were saying. He began to relay the message.

"Take the artifact bake to Romulus… The people will benefit greatly from this power source…

It shall revolutionize… technical gobbledegook.."

"Ook?"

"Yes I just said technical gobbledegook. I don't understand everything you know."

"Ook."

"Yes yes laugh it out get it out of your system… They're talking about evidence of an explosion now…"

"Find better place to hide now!" Rincewind said, shoving everyone behind another rock. "They have fancy space gonnes! We can't fight them with just Carrot's sword and the Librarian's fists!"

Leonard glared. "Why do you never count my CrossBolt?"

"That thing likes to explode."

"Then why not use it to explode them away? We need to get to the stargate anyway."

Rincewind opened his mouth to object to this plan. Then he whimpered. There were really only two options - stay hiding and hope they went away and never found the three people and an orangutan, or blow them up and get out through the stargate.

Rincewind turned to Carrot. Carrot nodded.

"Why do we have to blow things up…?" Rincewind moaned.

Thirty seconds later, Rincewind was running for his life. Again. It went against his every desire to run _towards_ the danger to get away from it, but the only escape was through the stargate. He reached the ring device first and punched in the address for the Disc before the Romulans even knew what happened. But after he dialed, they got ahold of themselves rather quickly. They shot their laser guns, and as luck would have it, one hit Carrot and made him pass out feet from the gate.

"Bah!" Rincewind said, grabbing Carrot. He slowly pulled him into the gate as the Librarian and Leonard ran through. "Why do I bother saving you people… I should just leave you here and save my own skin…"

Rincewind's body wasn't listening to a word his mind was telling him.

"Bah." He said as _he_ was shot, and he managed to pass out in such a way as to fall into the stargate, dragging Carrot with him.

Death clapped as he walked through the gate. "WELL DONE." He said. "THE LAW OF NARRATIVES IS APPARENTLY LEAKING OFF THE DISC WITH YOU."

Rincewind, being knocked out, didn't say anything.

"Ook."

"I FAIL TO SEE HOW THAT APPLIES HERE."

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

The Ulysses was busy exploring the unknown space beyond Tellarite territory. There had been a whole lot of nothing, further cementing the idea that life, while on a lot of places near Earth, was not that common elsewhere in the galaxy. They had found yet another design of stargates, this one a strange reddish color with blowing blue glyphs, and had picked up a few. Though they would soon be beyond the "stretching barrier" of the sector.

The captain of the vessel, a Hebridan captain who called himself Twoshoes. Nobody really knew why. Nobody asked more than once. He was a stern man with an odd sense of humor.

"Did you hear me? We're playing go fish with the stars and they'll like it!"

"…Yes captain."

"Good." He said as cards of go fish appeared on the screen. He was inwardly laughing at how squirmy all the crew members had gotten as he ordered go fish decks on most screens, but he kept the outward appearance of an emotionless rock.

It was really quite funny in his mind.

"Captain! A ship just dropped out of warp! Unknown design!"

Twoshoes nodded, removing the go fish from the screen and investigating the craft's design. It was greenish and birdlike, like a hawk hunting for prey.

"Hail them with our basic message."

A wrinkled, brown face appeared on the screen shortly thereafter. "Peace! HA! Weak! The scaly one's weak!"

Twoshoes blinked. "What?"

"He doesn't understand honor does he? Let's teach him a lesson in the art of battle! Disable his weapons. AHAHAH" He let out a jolly laugh before severing the connection.

The ship fired a weapon.

"Minimal damage to shields."

The ship fired more weapons.

"It's… doing _some_ damage sir, but nothing overly threatening."

Twoshoes sighed. "Disable their weapons…"

An Asgard Precision Laser shot out of the Ulysses, cutting into the opposing ship. The weapons were disabled. And then the entire ship exploded.

Everyone stared on in shock.

A crew member spoke first. "Who on earth wires a ship so that it explodes when the weapons are cut off?"

"Those guys, obviously." Twoshoes noted. "They probably won't be much of a problem though."

He wouldn't know it for a long time, but he was oh so wrong.

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

The border disputes between Tellarites and Andorians only worsened. Instead of falling back because the Tau'ri sided with the Tellarites, the Andorians seemed to get more aggressive in their plays. No shots had been exchanged, yet, but there had been many close calls. The Lucian Alliance made a point of backing the Andorians claims for land, saying that no-one was using the systems anyway and that the Andorians needed the resources. This was obviously because the Lucians wanted to trade with the Andorians for more materials, but they never came out and said that.

The Jaffa were split on the issue. Some believed that the Andorians' struggle against the system was honorable, while others thought the Andorians were taking back on their word. Though the vast majority of Jaffa just flat out didn't care. The Reform and the Vulcans made a point of not taking sides in the dispute.

All sides obviously didn't want to fight - such a battle would be disastrous if you weren't the Tau'ri - so there were no battles. Everything was resolved politically, though not necessarily peacefully.

And there was no settlement. The Andorians kept taking new worlds and the other governments didn't really want to do anything about it aside from make threats they didn't follow up on. The Andorians were slowly getting braver and braver, though the Lucians sometimes escorted their ships.

Tensions were mounting.

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

The Midgard stargate flared up, and Twilight Sparkle walked out onto the largest colony of Earth. She looked on, and then grinned. "It worked! We connected directly from Equis! The gate system is uninterrupted!" She started bouncing up and down.

Another unicorn nudged Twilight. "Twilight… they're staring…"

"What do you mean Starlight? I uh- oh." She frowned as she noticed the cameras everywhere. "Great." Then she smiled. "Hello people of Midgard! I am Princess Twilight Sparkle, and we have just demonstrated that the gate system works after being spread 5% beyond it's boundaries without needing a power boost!" She clapped her hooves together.

Starlight just grinned sheepishly before speaking up. "Anyway, we have important matters to attend to so we really must be on our way-"

"Starlight what are you-"

"Terribly sorry about not letting you interview us. I hear Lyra and Bon Bon are around though, and i'm sure Lyra would love more publicity." Starlight got Twilight out of there quickly. "Honestly Twilight, I'm not sure you quite understand what it means to be a public figure…"

Twilight shrugged. "Probably not. But at least I'm good at my job-"

"Not really." Starlight said with an arched eyebrow. "You usually leave the politics to the others - if you're going to keep doing things like this you really need to learn how to play the game."

"Well that's why I have you, obviously."

Starlight facehooved. "I'm not always going to be here you know."

"You're my student. And unlike Celestia, I think students should actually be allowed to help the teacher. Now uh… what important business were we pretending to have?"

"We have to be at a meeting in two hours… until then I suppose we can just walk around and take in the sights. And hope nothing goes wrong."

Twilight squee'd. "I've always wanted to look at an alien library! Come on! I'm sure they have one!"

Starlight rolled her eyes.

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

 ** _WARP THEATRE_**

The Eldar Farseer was sick of looking. Yet look he must, for that was his purpose in life. He could not stop looking… He had to continue. But the visions of the future were always bleak. Chaos, Dark Eldar, Ori, Orks, Mon-keigh… It was all some manner of destruction or other. In the long term, there seemed to be no hope. The Tau were useless, and the Eldar could not stop the inevitable decay. The nearby area of the galaxy sickened him.

Unfortunately looking far into the reaches of the galaxy just confused him with unusual and nonspecific images. Artifacts of great power and hope, beasts that rivaled the chaos gods, great sprawling empires wishing for the destruction of all, and all the headaches of the Core. The most common image he got was of a humanoid covered in machine parts and pale skin just… standing there. Doing nothing. Emotionless. It scared him.

He didn't want to look out far either… It would just give him more questions. Sick of the world he lived, he tried to look for a path of a short distance. A place not too far away…

He got a rush of images. An eye of fire laughing. A small stout Mon-keigh like creature. A ring. Great power. Armies. War. A large humanoid machine waking up and changing this world forever. A small green world unaware of the world outside was about to get a rude awakening in a time of crisis. All around that singular ring… The Precious…

The Farseer shook his head. Enough of that, he was going to bed. Others could look into the future for today.

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

" _How_ have they done it?" Ifrit roared, rippling space-time around himself. Trillesk just sighed.

"Ifrit, you need to take this calmly. We cannot improve our own powers if we rush into things head on. We have to be deliberate. Rushing for answers will likely get more of us killed. Most likely you."

Ifrit smoldered. Literally.

"Anyway to answer your question, we _do_ know how they're doing it. Remember the C'tan?"

"Furling mistake, I remember." Ifrit grumbled.

"Yep. Well as it turns out they ended up here, becoming the gods for the Necrons. However, they gave the Necrons too much, and the Necrons turned against them, and managed to defeat them millions of years ago. That's the simple version."

"So what we are facing are the weapons developed to fight gods?"

"Essentially. However it is obvious that they are hard to use and require that one of us stay still for long enough to be hit from several directions at once. Of course, they use C'tan shards for that…"

"The miniature energy beings. Not a fan of them."

"C'tan have some kind of physical presence, unlike us, so when they are destroyed they leave behind a shard. A shard which the Necrons bend to their will. The power is minuscule compared to us, but it is enough to keep us busy for a few seconds. And an intelligent Necron commander can make those few seconds work to his favor."

"They're also starting to unite against us. The Necron worlds used to disagree quite often… Now they view us as an enemy of old that must be destroyd." Ifrit grunted. "This is getting… most annoying. I'm going to get Marv in on this."

Trillesk paled. "Marv? _Marv?"_

"And Vetho."

"Are you insane? They might kill _you!_ Well, Marv probably won't, but Vetho is given the aspect of death for a _reason."_

"I tire of playing the slow game with these Necrons. We actually need to put some effort into removing them. The death of an Ori is an unforgivable sin." Ifrit roared, bright as a star. "They will pay for what they have done!"

Trillesk backed away, really hoping Ifrit would leave before he ruined the experimental area that had been painstakingly set up far from any inhabited world. It would take forever to make another one! And he'd loose all his test subjects if Ifrit didn't stop burning!

Luckily, Ifrit entered hyperspace and left. Trillesk let out a sigh of relief.

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

Glim looked through her telescope.

That star hadn't been there before. What was more concerning was that it was less than a light-month away from them. What on Remnant could flare up like that?

She consulted the star charts cobbled together form the Ork data. There was nothing there at all. it was far form the "Eye of Spikey Boyz and Warp Squigs," the closest location to Remnant.

It concerned her. There was more out there than they knew…

[][][][][][[][][][][][][][]

Most Ori liked looking like white wisps of energy or fire. Both were natural forms an Ori could take, one just more calm than the other. However, this was by no means a hard fast rule. There were a few Ori who went against the general appearance. For instance, Vetho liked to appear pitch black and lightless. It didn't take much energy to change his appearance into anti-light. An energy of darkness and death.

It also helped that space was black and most of the time he couldn't be seen. Most Ori were too arrogant to be stealthy, but Vetho appreciated the art of the silent kill.

He had been watching the Necrons amass a fleet for the last several days, coordinating with each other and preparing an offensive on the supergate.

But Ifrit had called in the cavalry… and Marv had laid out a plan. There would be no Ori deaths this time. The Necrons would be wiped out before they even knew what hit them.

Vetho took his position in the center of the Necron fleet. He had made _sure_ nothing saw him - be it C'tan shard or Necron. He laughed. Doom was upon them. Delicious doom.

Who needed worship when you had death?

The Ori fleet appeared, catching the Necrons by mild surprise. They launched several C'tan shards at the ships, tearing right through the impressive shields. C'tan shards swarmed through the fleet, eating up the energy of the Ori's ships… There were dozens of them making quick work.

Then the Ori fleet self-destructed. C'tan shards may be able to take a lot of abuse, but an entire fleet of high-energy ships exploding was not one of them. With that, dozens of C'tan shards were simply no more.

Vetho did a scan. There had been ten C'tan shards kept in reserve. The shards detected his scan immediately and came to meet him in battle, ready to tear him apart metaphysically.

At that point, Marv and Resprin appeared at the edge of the battlefield. Husband and wife, fire and light. The warrior and the healer. Marv attacked the fleet directly, sailing through the ships in a brilliant red streak, making sure to destroy ships just as they turned to face Vetho. Vetho, while being kept busy, was a master of killing. He knew exactly what metaphysical strings to pull to unravel the very being of anything - including other Ori. The C'tan shards were nothing to him. It took less than a minute to take care of them.

Then the Necrons managed to pull themselves together and fire an anti-ascended shot. It impacted Vetho, and he felt himself being torn apart. But he was smarter than that, he knew how to kill - he also knew how to avoid death. He pulled the threads of his existence in such a way that he wrapped around the beams of energy, pulling out. By no means was he unscathed, but he was alive.

Resprin quickly rejuvenated him with her own energy.

Without their C'tan shards, the Necrons could no longer get a good shot off on the Ori. And any damage they caused would be quickly repaired by Resprin.

The Necron fleet fell within minutes.

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

"Vale is proud to announce the launch of the Dust Trail project! For the first time in Remnant history, we will send a person into space itself! Huntress Marine will get to see our wonderful world from orbit, an achievement that will go down in history forever!

The discovery was made possible from discoveries within Ork technology. While the rockets themselves will be powered by Dust, the craft itself will keep Marine alive and well using nothing but electric energy and systems based off those used in Ork ships.

It was very difficult to reverse engineer the Ork ships due to their physical in application, but as it turns out the base ideas behind them are still there, they just needed to be fine tuned…"

Gradient grinned. "Well there you go, you're going to space."

The blue haired woman standing behind him grinned. "Well, I've known about this for a few weeks." She twirled her hand. "Wish me luck Gradient!"

"Luck has been wished." He let out a puff of orange fire. "Wave to use when you're up there, will you?"

"Aha! Nah. I'll be waving to the stars."

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

Luther closed the book of Origin. "In conclusion, you and me, we are equal. We are the same. We are all looking for a brighter humanity. Our gods, or emperors - we can only wish that they will grace us with true existence. I am nothing more than a simple Prior. I am no better than you. Your purposes are to work, to live, to play, and to enjoy life. Mine is a simple humble spiritual advisor. And, I suppose, as a general at times." He knocked on his power armor, drawing some laughs from the gathering.

"I may have to go eventually my friends, and bring Origin to my brothers and sisters. I must go to the Emperor and bring him to the light. It is only a matter of time. But do not worry about me - I shall be eternal in Origin. If I die, there will be celebration. Though as all of you know I'm notoriously difficult to kill."

More laughs.

"Now-" Then he sensed something. A shadow approaching the planet. His hands curled into firsts. He knew what that meant.

"TYRANIDS!" He yelled, rushing outside, grabbing his staff and his Space Marine weapons. He looked up at the sky, and saw the bugs starting to descend, teeth gnashing. He prayed to the Ori, even though he knew they couldn't hear him. The Tyranids blocked everything. They devoured everything.

But, damn them, he wasn't going to let them have a chance! The bugs had destroyed hundreds of worlds, eating them bone-dry. He was going to give them a taste of what a Prior Space Marine was like. He held his staff up high, shooting massive energy bolts into the sky, cutting dozens of Tyranids in half. But there were thousands of them. Some landed nearby, beginning to eat the population. Others flew overhead, surveying the land.

They quickly realized that they should be focusing their energy on the person in the power armor with the staff who was killing them by the dozen. They tried to move in, but they were beat back. They tried to blast him with venomous acid, but he raised a shield. They tried to play the long range game with him, but he shot them all regardless. They tried sending swarms of microscopic bugs, only to have them burnt to a crisp. They sent mountainous creatures, only to have them be killed in one shot. This guy just wasn't going down, and he was barely breaking a sweat. Much improved from the other Priors they had encountered.

It was expected to take several thousand Tyranids to take him out. That was deemed inefficient. So the Tyranids pulled back, making room for a new design to come forth.

This Tyranid looked just as bug-like as all the others, and was roughly the size of a large human. There was a major difference however - there were glowing white symbols circling the skin of the bug. It gnashed it's teeth, white sparks flying out.

Luther pushed out with his powers. The Tyranid pushed _back_. Luther held his ground, blasting a white hot beam of energy towards the Tyranid. It simply responded in kind.

Luther grinned. "Oh, so you won't go down will you? Fine. Old-fashioned way then." He drew his chainsword. Then a second Prior Tyranid grabbed him from behind, tossing him into the air.

Luther laughed. As much as he liked peace - he had to admit there was fun in a challenge. He clapped his hands, sending out a shockwave that knocked the glowing bugs over. They stood up quickly, responding with the exact same thing, while a third one blasted him with a laser.

He saw in the distance a few more arriving. These bugs were making dead sure that Luther wasn't going to make it out of this. No! He would not fall! He had just seen the light!

At that moment Iris appeared. "Having trouble?"

"A bit-"

"Well then." She raised her hand, a white light appearing in it. "Let me provide a miracle."

The white light shot out several million spikes, puncturing into every last Tyranid within a square mile. This didn't kill all of them.

It took several thousand uses of the technique to take care of them.

Iris looked around, sadness in her eyes. "Such pointless violence… I do not think the Tyranids can be shown Origin. We will have to irradiate them."

"As it should be, Iris."

"You are a good follower Luther." Iris smiled. "It is time for you to move onto the true battlefield."

"I would be honored."

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

Marine was strapped into the Dust Trail, looking at the screen that showed her vitals and everything. She was in a spacesuit, even though it wasn't expected that she would ever need to leave the craft. To her sides were two displays - one that ran on Dust, and the other on electricity.

She clutched the chair.

"Ready?" A voice said in her ear.

"Ready, control." She said.

"Launching in 3… 2… 1…"

The rumble was loud and intense, and as she rose into the sky, the pressure was even greater. Granted, this was not as hard as some Grimm had hit her, but no Grimm would be able to keep up this amount of pressure for this amount of time. She felt like a pancake. She gritted her teeth. She was _not_ going to pass out.

For several minutes, she held onto her chair with determination. She was going to see the stars. She was going to open the window and see the world below. She was _not_ going to wimp out.

Then she felt like something was torn out of her very being as the Dust display went dark. She screamed, thrashing around in her seat. Luckily she was buckled in.

She tried to access her semblance… she could still feel the vibrations around her, but she felt like something form her was missing. Something she had felt her entire life was just gone. It was harrowing to say the least.

She calmed herself down - she had been told this might happen. It wasn't anything to worry about, she could live without the aura of Remnant. She let out a deep breath.

She noticed the pressure was gone.

She lifted her hand up. It just floated in front of her, not falling back down. So cool.

She reached forward, tapping the handle in front of her. It clicked, meaning the window had survived launch in tact. She could look out. She pulled the seal away, and looked through the window.

She saw stars, stars sparkling in the sky. Her mouth curled up into a smile. It was beautiful.

Then she saw a sight even more awe-inspiring. As the Dust Trail rotated, the world of Remnant came into view. The vibrant glow of the oceans were seen first, alongside the lush green of the forests. The kingdom of Vale was easily visible below her, a strong presence within the green fields. She could see Atlas a little ways to the north, glowing in the ice and snow.

It hardly looked like a world besieged by monsters at every side - it seemed like a world filled with life and beauty.

She was happy for several minutes.

Then the craft began to descend and she had to deal with a whole new set of feelings as her semblance returned and she crashed into the ocean.

She popped out of the craft, grinning like a madwoman. "THAT WAS AWESOME!"

 **NOTE: This is a collaborative project. The Galaxy Project can also be found on the Spacebattles Creative Writing Forums for those who are interested.**


	5. T-MINUS 247 YEARS

**_T-MINUS 247 YEARS_**

 ** _(ORBSyndicate, Spades163, Professor Janus)_**

 ** _EARTH THEATRE_**

Daniel Jackson sighed.

"You recognize the ship design don't you?" The Andorian, Forza, asked as his face contorted in a strange combination of smugness and rage.

"Yes…" Daniel said. "This is the same design that the Ulysses destroyed by accident a few months ago-"

"And now they've started attacking us!" A blue hand smashed down on the desk. "You, in your arrogance, have called them down on us!"

Daniel entertained the idea of giving the Andorian a lecture on "arrogance" but decided against it. Instead, he went for something else.

"You are right. This is our fault."

"And furthermore you are- wait WHAT?"

"I said you were right."

Forza blinked, confused. But he continued on anyway. "We demand compensation for this!"

"Of course. We will make a few ships available to take care of the threat free of charge-"

"We do not need your help defending our borders!"

Daniel blinked. The Tellarites and Vulcans had grabbed that opportunity without so much as blinking (though the Tellarites response was significantly more wordy.) "May I ask why you are refusing our assistance? You did just ask for compensation-"

"Compensation! In the form of goods or something, not any sort of action that _dares_ suggest we are not a fully capable nation on our own! We shall stand our ground on our own!"

"If I'm not mistaken, the reports do suggest that their weapons are more advanced than yours and their numbers have to be larger if they can attack all three of you at once. I do not think-"

"You _dare_ suggest that we will be wiped out by these wrinkly forheaded buffoons?"

"They may seem primitive, but they are obviously good at combat. We've heard the reports. They attack, specifically hitting areas of ships that will not destroy them. Then they board, their hand-to-hand weapons plowing through most officers. While your officers do fare better than the other races, they are losing."

"And we shall win. It is only a matter of time till we turn the tables. We reject your proposal, but we demand a different kind of compensation."

"What exactly is it that you want?" Daniel asked.

"Your weapons technology."

Daniel glared. "You know our agreement with the Asgard prevents that. Unless you are suggesting becoming a member of the Alliance, we cannot give you anything of that nature."

"Pah! The Asgard are dead - why do you need to honor anything with them?"

"It's the principle of the agreement. We want to be worthy of the mantle they have given us, and the moment we break that agreement we lose that."

"They can not punish you for it!"

 _Oh yes they can…_ Daniel thought. "We are not budging on that point."

"Fine then." Forza muttered. "Then we shall demand that you back down on your aggressions against the Lucian Alliance."

Daniel looked up. "They have-"

"They are our allies." Forza said. "And they have made it abundantly clear that they do not appreciate your attempts to destabilize them. Leave them be- they are a nation just like the rest of us."

Daniel paused for a moment, then smiled warmly. "Of course ambassador. It will be done within the month."

Forza blinked, confused once more. "…Good." He said. "I have business to attend to…"

Minutes later, Daniel called up O'Neill.

"Looks like you're going to have to move your anti-Lucian movement to the Jaffa Jack."

Daniel loved when simple solutions presented themselves. After all, the Jaffa and Tau'ri were completely different nations.

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

Lyra walked up to the stage on her two back legs. For most Equestrians, the movement was uncomfortable, but Lyra had learned how to walk this way for hours on end. Most people on Equis would find it weird, but here, among humans, it was a way for them to feel closer to her and listen to her as an equal rather than just as a talking horse. "Hello my little humans, thank you for being here tonight. I am honored to speak to you today on the nature of "magic" and the unusual powers of beings beyond your world. I must thank Oxofrd University for allowing me to speak.

Across the stars, you will hear of beings with impressive powers that don't seem to make physical sense. The Priors of the Remnant have amazing powers that they once used for the Ori, the creatures of PX-4223 can create fireballs with their mind, and my own world seems actually saturated with a magical energy. As a student of Princess Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns, I spent a good deal of my life studying the rules, nuances, and fundamentals of magic. I am Lyra Heartstrings, and one of the first things I was taught was that magic is an expression of sentient thought through the thaumic fabric. The thaumic fabric is a mysterious construct, but it has been directly observed. It is composed entirely of particles known as thaums that collect themselves in all manner of patterns…"

As Lyra gave the lecture, Bon Bon was observing everything from a nondescript cream-colored van in the parking lot. She had headphones over her head and was rapidly checking every screen. Beside her stood an agent of the TRID (Tau'ri Investigation Division) known as Agent Ursa.

"Are we sure they're going to make a move?" Bon Bon asked, looking at every screen worriedly.

"That is unknown. We know so little about them. They may even be aware of our presence here. We cannot be sure of anything."

Bon Bon nodded.

Agent Ursa looked closely at one of the monitors. Her eyes widened. "No… it can't be…"

"What?" Bon Bon questioned.

"That's agent Fox Mulder of the FBI, and his partner Dana Scully." She gritted her teeth. "How on earth did they hear about this?"

Bon Bon went through the files in her mind mentally. "The agent who was convinced there was some alien conspiracy on Earth? Don't worry about him."

"Yeah- wait how do you know?"

"I did my research. Aaaaaaaaaand I may have met him during my last visit to Earth." She grinned sheepishly.

Agent Ursa just stared at her.

"What?"

"He's here because of you. Do you have any idea how annoying this guy is?"

"Well I didn't _invite_ him, he probably just heard about Lyra speaking and decided he wanted to hear it. We did promote the speech to grab attention after all."

Agent Ursa sighed. "Watch him closely. He has a way of making things go wrong."

"I've read the reports. You know he was probably right about a lot of things."

"The Asgard are _good_ guys Agent Drops-"

"Not all of them. I read the Loki file. There were experimentations going on."

"Yeah, but nothing like colonization! That's just preposterous."

"There's always more than you think." Bon Bon noted before turning back to the screen. She looked closely at Mulder and Scully's mouths.

Mulder was talking. "-and this is obviously a ploy to get them to make a move."

"Do you think it'll work?"

"I'm not sure - we didn't run into many witches and wizards now did we?"

"Well, I'm not convinced we can really prove we ran into any-"

"That's the point. They want to remain hidden. And they've done a better job at it than the aliens have."

"Mulder, there's an alien giving the speech. Your argument doesn't work anymore."

"You know there's times I miss being the crazy guy who believed in aliens. Now people actually take me _seriously._ Can you believe that?"

"I thought you always wanted to be taken seriously?"

"Well now that I have it I find that it's overrated. I always liked being the crazy one."

"This is why you and Lyra get along isn't it?"

"Yep. We're trading notes after this as well. I hear she's got some ideas about the history of Equis and I'm working out this mysterious cloaked presence in our space."

Bon Bon scrunched her muzzle. Well she hadn't invited him. Though obviously Lyra had if they were trading notes. She'd need to have a talk with her…

Lyra was moving on to the next portion of her speech. "And given the fact that _all_ races of Equis have been measured to have some level of thaumic energy within them, what about the rest of the universe? Do they have latent magical properties to them as well? The answer is yes, scans have been performed, and every race known to the Tau'ri does in fact have a connection to the fabric within them, including humans. Now the connection is rather weak compared to, say, mine, but with more research we will hopefully be able to discover how to tap into this potentia-"

Then Lyra slumped over, a haunting look covering her face. The crowd gasped. Her horn lit up, a strange magical aura surrounding her head. "Mental attack!" She yelled. "Find them!" Then she put her hooves to her head trying to counteract the attack on her very mind.

In the audience, there was a perfectly normal looking man with a beard. He did, however, have a look in his eyes like he was focusing hard, and one of his hands was pointing in Lyra's direction. No-one noticed this, for they were all staring at Lyra's mental battle.

The old man frowned. She was an excellent spell caster - she was actually making him spend effort to keep her down. He muttered magic words under his breath, scarcely making any noise. He would not be discovered, but he needed to stop this. She was a threat-

"Excuse me sir. Would you please cease your attack?"

The old man turned to a man covered head-to-toe in a robe, with only his mouth visible.

"I have no idea what you are talking about-"

"I think you do." The Prior Cero said, revealing his face. "It would be best if you came with us willingly. I do not wish for any bystanders to be hurt."

The man contorted his face in anger. "Why can't you just let us stay where we are?"

"The world is changing. And you must change with it."

Lyra broke out of her mental attack. "GREAT HAND SANDWICHES WITH PANTS!" She blurted out, panting. "That was difficult!" She turned to the Prior and the old man, trotting up to them. "Hi! Were you the one who killed her?" She asked.

"It was a horrible act, but required-"

Lyra bucked him in the face, glowering. "That was not for trying to remain secret. That was not for trying to attack me. That was not even for any manipulations you've done in the past. _That_ was for killing." Then her look softened. "I just… why? What secret could be that important?"

"You're about to find out…" The old man said before sighing. "You have doomed us."

"Oh don't worry I'm sure you'll be fine-"

"Your world is much too forgiving." The old man said, shaking his head. "If Earth was like yours, maybe. But it is not. We will be hated, as we were before."

Cero frowned. "You have become jaded. Perhaps you should have more faith in your people."

"Muggles are _not_ my people."

He was led away. Mulder walked up to Lyra. They quickly exchanged gigantic folders the size of small books. Then Mulder looked at her. "Think I can get in on this?"

"I don't see why not."

Scully facepalmed and Bon Bon facehooved.

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

The Romulan furrowed his brow. "Here is the data you asked for considering the theory behind computational mechanics."

"And here's the scroll you asked for involving thaumic mechanics." Leonard said, putting the scroll on the table.

The two grabbed the others objects quickly. The trade was done.

"Pleasure doing business with you!" Leonard said.

"It has been useful." The Romulan noted before turning and walking away.

Rincewind came out from behind a column. "Is he gone?"

"He's gone."

"I don't trust them. They just smell like evil."

Leonard shrugged. "Well at the moment it's them or the Jaffa. And the Jaffa don't like us at the moment since they figured out the Librarian was leaving presents in their bedrooms."

"Ook."

"That changes nothing."

"Ook!"

Rincewind groaned. "Why must you go with your instincts?"

"Ook."

"Right, stupid question."

As the three argued, Carrot was listening in on the Romulan's discussion as they headed back through the gate.

"We must apply this as soon as possible."

"We will be able to apply it within a year. We will be able to put our plans into motion."

"The Tau'ri will no longer threaten us." Then they left

Carrot frowned. "Team, we're heading back."

"Thank my hat…" Rincewind moaned.

"I have information I doubt the Patrician is going to let us use."

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

Daniel adjusted his suit. As ambassador for the Tau'ri, he often ended up being the face of the leadership. So he often had to give speeches… "People of Earth and the Tau'ri Alliance, I come to you with disturbing news. As you are probably aware, we recently arrested a man for using magic-like abilities against our honored guest Lyra Heartstrings during a speech at Oxford University. In our questioning of this man, something has come to light. There have apparently been magic users on Earth for as long as we have been around, tapping into the thaumic fabric to give them unnatural powers. In our past, they were prosecuted by us for their power, which I suppose isn't their fault. Their reaction was to conceal themselves from the world, making the use of their powers something none of us would be aware of. This is how it has been for centuries. Under our noses, for hundreds of years, there have been entire wizarding nations that have their own people, cities, and politics. And even in this modern age, they have decided to resort to killing rather than simply allowing themselves to be revealed. They were responsible for the Bolt in London a little over a year ago. We do not know how deep their involvement in our world goes, but we now know they exist and are determined to make sure they become accountable."

Daniel leaned toward the camera. "And I have a message to the wizarding world as well. You have not made an admirable first impression on us. The man we have has shown a desire to kill, extreme racism against non magic users, and a complete disregard for the Alliance government. I encourage you to dispel this picture that has been painted of you and reveal yourselves. Despite all evidence to the contrary, I am going to choose to give you the benefit of the doubt and not judge you based on the actions of a few. I choose to believe that you are good people at heart, not that different from us. Just come out into the open. It will be better for everyone."

He sighed. "But as you know, we cannot live with you in the unknown. We will eventually seek you out since we cannot have a force that covers our world that we are not aware of. I am sorry if this destroys some of your culture, but we cannot have you away from our eyes. You could be used against us and tense our relations with other people. You are lucky the Equi are so forgiving."

"As to the rest of you, please, do not hate them for the secrets they have kept. Yes, it was wrong - but forcing them to adapt to a world they wanted no part in is punishment enough. Please, do not make them suffer. Let us prove that we are worth their respect."

"Thank you."

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

Captain Archer and the Enterprise were observing the stars beyond Tellarite space. Archer questioned the wisdom of actually _looking_ for the violent aliens, who were apparently called Klingons. Sure, the Enterprise was overkill on a hyperspace drive, predicted to be able to face three Daedalus class vessels at once and easily beat a Wraith hive ship. But there was just something wrong about actively seeking out things that wanted to kill you.

T'pol noticed this. "Unless the Klingons bring a force of fifty ships, you are unlikely to have any trouble with them. We just need to open up a dialogue."

Cyst rolled her eyes. "Why can't you just blow them up? That'd be more fun."

"And less honorable." Jer'll countered. "If we go around simply blowing them up, they will keep coming. We must try something else. It would be disappointing to see a species be destroyed by us."

T'pol raised an eyebrow. "Are you not the one who encourages violence?"

"There is a difference between pointless violence and honorable battle." She smiled. "And I hope to show them that."

Archer shook his head. "I get to try to talk them down first, Jer'll."

"Be my guest."

At that moment, three Klingon ships dropped out of warp and began firing on the enterprise, doing nothing.

Archer sent out a message. "Hear me people of the Klingon Empire! We do not wish to fight! We represent the Tau'ri Alliance, and we did not mean to destroy your ships. We do not wish for a war. The less death the better."

They continued firing.

"Please! We do not want to be forced to fight you!"

More firing. Jer'll twitched. "You had your chance." She walked up to the comm.

"Allright, listen up Klingons. I am Jer'll of the Jaffa, an ally of the namby-pamby Tau'ri here. Unlike them, I would actually _like_ a fight, but I'm sure you will agree with me that shooting at each other from the safety of ships pales in comparison to a direct face-to-face conflict! I desire to see how your warriors truly fight, and I will show you how a Jaffa proves their honor! Send your strongest warrior down to the planet below and I will meet you there. And just because these Tau'ri want it, how about you agree to stop the attack on them if I win?"

The firing stopped, and a Klingon responded.

"I like your spirit Jer'll! I am Partik, son of Meln. It will be an honor to meet you in combat! I shall meet your challenge myself! What are your people's rules for combat?"

Jer'll held out her staff, removing the energy crystal from it. "We fight with physical weapons only, be they bladed or blunt, and no holds are barred. The duel ends when one of us is either knocked out or killed. There is no surrendering."

Partik grinned in glee. "You are the first race we have encountered to have such a practice! Those stupid spoonheads prevent death, and all the others wish for peace! I accept those terms." He laughed. The connection went down.

"They are obviously a warrior race, even more violent than the Jaffa." Jer'll said. "We must play their game in order for them to play ours. Take me down."

On the surface of the world, a band of ten or so Klingons stood. Jer'll walked to the front of them. "Are you ready Partik?"

"Today is a good day to die." He responded, grinning. He glanced behind her, at Cyst. "Why do you have that creature here?"

"I am not a creature thank you very much!" Cyst glared.

Partik laughed. "Ah, you look like you would make for a most interesting duel. Perhaps once I am done with her I can challenge you."

"You agreed to let them go." Jer'll reminded him.

Partik nodded. "Of course. I will keep my word." He hefted up his weapon, a multi-bladed two-handed object. "This is a bat'leth. What's your weapon called?"

"A Ma'tok staff. It is functional as both a ranged and close combat weapon. Though I have disabled the ranged function for this dual."

Partik grinned. Then he bowed, and Jer'll responded in kind. Then the two rushed at each other. The weapons clashed, a clang resonating in the ears of all present.

Archer heard the munching of popcorn. He turned to see Vala eating and watching the spectacle. He sighed.

The Klingons cheered on both participants, and Cyst did the same. "BURN HIM!" She cheered.

Jer'll and Partik were sweating. "You are a surprisingly good fighter, Jer'll."

"I could say the same about you."

"Your style differs from all the others I have faced. I cannot wait to battle others of your kind!"

"Perhaps you will have a chance." She said as she lifted her foot to kick him in the chest. He stopped it by driving the blade of the bat'leth into her leg. She didn't call out, instead she grinned.

"Gotcha." She said as she swung her staff as hard as she could, clocking Partik solidly on the head. He blinked, muttered "blood wine's eyeballs…" and passed out.

Jer'll removed the blade from her leg, hissing as the blood flowed out. Then she turned to the Klingons. "I win."

A few minutes later Partik woke up, and started laughing. "That was quite the ploy there Jer'll! I can see your people understand the point of a good fight! Ha! Come, let us drink blood wine and be merry. Invite your lizard friend as well."

Cyst grinned. "Will there be meat?"

"OF COURSE THERE WILL BE MEAT! AHAHAHAH!"

Then they began to have "festivities."

Archer watched from a distance. "…Did it work then?"

"To be fair captain, I have no idea." T'pol responded.

"Huh."

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

It was the beginning of summer, and in the sleepy town of Gravity Falls, Oregon, family was reuniting once more. Everyone always dropped whatever they were doing and returned to the town for those three months - it was tradition at this point.

"Grunkle Stan!" Mabel and Dipper, two sixteen year old twins, yelled while hugging Stan.

"He he he, welcome back kids. Or should I say Agents?"

"Uh, Grunkle Stan…" Dipper started nervously.

"Oh come off it, I know about the Foundation. They tried to hire me but I declined. So they decided to just let me live here. And now that they have that deal with my brother everything's all peachy1"

"Why would they hire you?" Asked Dipper, a little confused.

"What, you think I was sitting on my couch the entire time my brother was indisposed? I practically can recite the book from memory, and managed to get a degree in quantum mechanics, somehow."

"How is he anyway?"

"Oh, he's ok. He is just... waiting in the…" Stan paused, worry crossing his face. "Dipper…?"

"Yeah?"

"When has Mabel ever been quiet here?"

There was a loud crash that came from Ford's lab, startling everyone.

"Mabel!"

"Ford!"

They ran into the other room to see Ford and Mabel on the ground, with Ford holding his elbow.

"He took it!" Ford yelled. "He took the damn thing."

"What did he take?" Asked Stan, a little worried.

"The damn memory gun."

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

He walked up to the machine, sadly limited by the technology.

Taking out the memory gun, he opened the casing to revile the memory cell.

Taking it out, he put it into machine.

The picture generated was blurry, all static.

He twisted some knobs until a picture was starting to be generated.

Sound came next.

"-LLLLLLLLYYYYYYYYYY"

The form of Bill Cipher formed on the screen, who then collapsed, panting.

"...What the...What happened?"

Readjusting his hat, he picked himself up.

"Ok, who's the wise guy who..."

His eye then went wide, almost completely taking up the screen.

"YOU!"

[][][][][][][][][][][][][]

The Wizarding World began to come out into the open. The world was shocked as entire nations of magic users appeared, each from their own borders, governments, and laws. Britain and America's nations came into the open almost instantly, and quickly tattled on any others that tried to remain hidden. Over the course of a month, the UN recognized the magical nations as their own sovereign bodies that would be treated just like any other nation - except they didn't own land. They were forced to officially reveal the existence and location of any magical town, city, school, and anything else they were keeping hidden. However, they were not required to reveal the identity of every wizard in existence, only those who held positions of power. The wizards did not have to register any papers or anything and they could continue to live their lives as they wished. However, all wizarding nations were required to know who all their citizens were, and would turn this information over to the authorities if prompted.

Essentially, it was a political and legal nightmare to sort out, but they managed. There were still many problems and court cases kept coming up that often made no sense, but they paled in comparison to the social problems that arose.

Those who revealed themselves as wizards to their piers sometimes got the coveted "man that's cool!" reaction. But far more often they would be shunned, and even be subject to almost racial violence born not from a superiority complex - but of fear. Fear that the wizards would rule the world and destroy those who didn't appeal to them. People were very unreasonable. It really didn't help that most wizards did view Muggles as inferior.

Many unicorns form Equis arrived and determined that normal humans could not craft spells the way wizards could. The magical signature was just different. The Reform Priors agreed, but they reminded everyone that the Ori had found out how to turn anyone into a Prior, and that there must be a way to accelerate everyone. Atlantis called in and told everyone that attempts at acceleration were a bad idea, citing personal experience on the matter.

Organizations were formed that campaigned for the registration and careful watch of all wizards, which Daniel Jackson fought personally. He said that wizards, just like everyone else, needed to remain free. He won over many people, and the Organization for Thaumic Openness was shut down in a matter of months. However, a minority splintered off to become the Magic Abolitionists, a terrorist organization that targeted not only human wizards, but also unicorns and Priors. They said that no being should be allowed to have that much more power than everyone else. They did not object to the latent magic of other races, such as the flight of the pegasi, but rather the power begins had to manipulate the world around them to their whim.

As for the wizards themselves, a large group formally refused to live anywhere where any Muggles could get to. The Dashers all piled onto a Hebridan ship and left to found their own colony on a mostly abandoned planet. Most of the Alliance was deeply untrusting, with the exception of Midgard. It was revealed that a small wizarding community lived there, and that they had actually been trying to keep the alien crime on Midgard down by leaving tips for law enforcement. They actually ended up being praised as a sort of superhero group. The wizards on Earth had to deal with prejudice and accusations. Though they had to admit, there was a lack of burnings at the stake. The Muggles were at least slightly less barbaric.

Then people started to realize that the wizards had magical creatures. That caused a small bout of panic that was quickly kept in check when some creature known as a dementor was vaporized from orbit by an Asgard Precision Laser as a demonstration. Things exploding were effective.

But with this revelation, Earth itself surprisingly didn't change all that much. Things remained mostly the same, and the people of Earth were still looking towards the stars…

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

Carter was concerned.

There had been _no_ evidence of Romulan activity in the past few months. There had been no detection of cloaked ships for the longest time.

Which meant one of two things.

Either they had developed a better cloak they couldn't detect, or they didn't need to use the ships anymore. They had found another way to infiltrate. Or, she supposed, they all just decided to stop watching them.

She snorted. Fat chance of that happening.

She walked out of the office, deep in thought. How would they go about creating infiltrators? They were close to Vulcan in physiology-

Ah. Well there it was. Simply change the attitude to a logical one and act like a Vulcan.

A genetic test would need to be performed to be sure there wasn't a spy… She would talk to O'Neill about initiating a gene scanning policy. Luckily the Vulcans were logical and unlikely to get upset about the screening. If it were the Andorians she had to worry about…

She shuddered to think about it. Those blue-skinned people were infuriating at times. She had tried to work with one of their scientists once. He dismissed all her ideas on principle, even if they were ideas he had suggested mere moments before!

Infuriating.

[][][][][][][][][[][][][][][][][][][]

"The game has begun again Mulder…"

Mulder looked up from his drink into a very familiar face wished by smoke. "You just don't know how to die do you?"

"I'm afraid dying would be against my wishes." The smoking man said, a slight smirk appearing on his face. "And it would make your life a good deal less interesting."

"I suppose so… So what's the deal this time? The Alien colonization didn't happen, and i'm pretty sure your little organization is completely trashed. What have you found?"

"My life is not worth discussing. Suffice it to say I have put myself in yet another important position, one which you don't even know exists. I'm simply here to tell you that it isn't over."

"Oh I know the aliens are still out there-"

"That's not what I mean." He let out a puff of smoke. "There are more secrets than just some alien plot for colonization, which was thwarted by the Asgard Legacy."

"The wizards?"

The smoking man let out a slight chuckle. "You really are just scraping the surface of how deep this goes. There are people on this world who live in the shadows. People who are invisible even to the wizards. This planet is a nexus of deceit, secrets, and unspoken rules. The revelation of the wizards to the public may have just made things worse."

Mulder frowned. "For us or these secret groups?"

"Mulder… Why not both?"

Mulder sat back, frowning. "Going to give me any leads?"

"Nope." The smoking man said, standing up. "Nice to see you again."

"Can't say the feeling is mutual."

"Of course not. Also, you can tell your unicorn friend she doesn't have to hide next time."

There was a slight " _Eep!"_ that could be heard from behind a nearby table.

"Until then." He said, walking away, leaving the agent and the unicorn.

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

The Enterprise was heading back to Earth to pick Lyra and Bon Bon back up - the two ponies had completed their little mission with help from the Reform and were eager to get back into space.

Archer was actually looking forward to heading back into unexplored space, looking for adventure and new exciting things…

So of course a crisis would develop on Midgard while he was in orbit.

A ship dropped out of warp. Smoke was coming off it at all angles. Sparks flew as the green craft descended to the planet below. The Nexus' defenses activated, preparing to return fire, but no fire came. Instead, the craft simply crashed outside the Nexus, creating a new ditch in the ground. A Klingon stepped out of the wreckage, laughed, and then promptly passed out.

Paramedics ran him to the Nexus hospital quickly. Archer immediately beamed down to the surface with SG-1 to analyze the situation.

The Klingon was on the bed, plugged into life support, barely breathing.

Layton frowned. "We know nothing about their physiology do we?"

The doctor franticly shook his head. "I have no idea if the drugs are going to hurt him, help him, or what! And I don't even know what's injured! See this organ on the scan here? That _might_ be a spleen! And that's the organ I'm most sure about!"

Vala blinked. "You can't find his stomach?"

"Well this organ here is where the food goes but it might also serve as the heart! I don't know!"

Archer frowned. "Do you know if he's going to die?"

"I don't know! Do you have one of those Priors on board? Maybe he can help him!"

Archer shook his head. "No, Cero's still on Earth…" He looked at the unicorn nurse who was examining another patient. "Can you help him?"

"Tried. Made him gurgle up some bloody substance that I later found out was just wine." She shrugged. "I'm not that good of a spell caster."

The Klingon's eyes widened. "It is not a good day to die! You will let me return to my ship and-" He coughed. "You will let me die in the way I was meant to! Give me my honor!"

The doctor waved him down "Now now, we're trying to save you and- wait how are you even conscious?"

Vala shrugged. "Sheer determination?"

The Klingon laughed. "It's Klingoness, something I don't think you are-URK!" Then slumped back onto the bed, dead.

There was silence in the room.

T'pol raised an eyebrow. "It is probably best the Klingons are not made aware of this incident."

"Agreed."

A Vulcan walked by in the hallway, face stoic, as was normal for Vulcans. She walked for several minutes, distancing herself from the Klingon's room. Then she pressed a button on her wrist.

"Inform the Klingon Empire that Kartha son of Rach has been killed by the humans in a dishonorable fashion. Give them them the location of Midgard and a good story to get them angry. It won't take much."

She stopped talking.

Soon, it would all go according to plan.

"Ambassador!" A Tellarite called. "Debate tonight. You coming?"

"Of course." She responded.

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

The town of Ponyville had been, just a few years ago, a quiet town where not much happened. Well, actually that's a lie. Lots of things happened in Ponyville, it was just that national attention wasn't drawn to the town for any reason other than "the Princess lives there."

That all changed when the Enterprise arrived. For a young earth pony mare by the name of Applebloom had an idea. A crazy idea, but an idea nonetheless.

In a matter of weeks, she discovered that she had the same aptitude for technology that she had for potion making and brewing. She instantly dropped her projects (which, to be fair, only included helping others find their destinies) and began Equis' first space-age technology company. Within a month, Appletech had hired scientists, engineers, and mages. They quickly began to churn out devices built from the ideas the Tau'ri had shared with them. They created a stargate dialing program, they shrunk the size of computers from room-sized monsters to something the size of a pony's head, and they experimented with Naquahdah.

However, their primary mission was to build Equis a spaceship. Within a year, they had a division of the company within Cloudsdale and began to test more advanced technology.

They combined Goa'uld crystals with those form the Crystal Empire to create a new source of power based in the thaumic fabric itself. The energy crystals could store vast amounts of magical power that could be tapped in any number of ways. A single power crystal could power Manehattan for a week, which was more than enough for a single ship. The only drawback was that it required a high level mage, Prior, or Princess to charge to maximum capacity. Which wasn't really a problem at the moment, seeing as they didn't need to have that many of the power crystals, but it would be a problem down the line.

But that innovation had revolutionized Equis, and now, just a couple years later, Applebloom was standing in the Ponyville Appletech Center, looking at Equis' first ship in glee. "May Ah present… the Dawn!"

Cameras snapped and the crowd let out ooos and aaahs. The craft itself was teardrop shaped and covered with all sorts of glowing magical circuitry. Many glyphs could be seen all over the hull atop the pearly-white material that made up the bulk of the craft.

"A joint effort between Appletech, the Zebrica Alchemical Society, and Celestia's School for Gifted Univorns, the Dawn is the first step in our journey to the stars! It can hold roughly a dozen individuals for extended periods of time and has a top speed of eleven times the speed of light!" She bowed as the crowd clapped, tramped, and gasped. She waved her hoof, and the craft rotated, opening the door in its side. The inside was covered in magical hologram terminals, had a large screen that acted as a forward window, and was emblazoned with crystal designs of all kinds. Below the windshield were two main chairs, and between them were two objects. One was a large crystal ball which displayed many numerous systems, while the other was some kind of spiky crystal that glowed a soft violet.

"With Appletech's revolutionary Crystal Ball Terminal, any race, regardless of hands or hooves, can control the Dawn. The CBT will recognize all touch input easily, removing the hassle of designing a craft to change to accommodate any race. Accompanying the CBT is the Zebra's Remote Spell Charm which will allow any spell caster within the craft to cast a spell onto the RSC and have it appear outside the craft. This could produce shields, weapons, or other desirable effects." She turned to grin at the crowd. "Now, Ah'm sure y'all didn't come here to just sit and listen to me talk about this thing, you wanted to see it in action. Well, it just so happens that we've scheduled a demonstration!"

Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle, a young orange pegasus and white unicorn, walked onto the display. They grinned. Scootaloo spoke up. "Are you ready for some awesome?"

"You bet we are!" Rainbow Dash yelled from the crowd.

Scootaloo walked into the Dawn, Sweetie close behind her. The door closed, and the Dawn began to float up into the air. Then it blasted off, leaving a sonic boom in its wake along with a pearly-white trail of energy. The people could barely see it when it entered hyperspace.

Three seconds later it dropped out of hyperspace and flew back down, landing gently on the stage. The door flipped open and Sweetie walked out, levitating a small grey rock. She grinned. "The crystal works. I was easily able to teleport a moon rock into the Dawn."

Scootaloo jumped out cheering. "YEAH! WE WENT TO THE MOON!"

The crowd erupted in applause. The three of them bowed.

That night they were up celebrating in Applebloom's office. They broke out the cider and let themselves revel in the success. Equis had its first ship, and soon there would be many more. The Dawn was just a proof of concept - within a year or two there would be ships with autonomous shields and weapons that did't require a unicorn to function.

"Girls, we've done it. We've made our mark AGAIN!" Applebloom cheered.

Sweetie blinked. "Yeah! Speaking of marks, anybody had a cutie mark problem lately?"

Applebloom nodded. "Ah helped three fillies find their talent. They're doing great work in engineering now."

"And I got someone to realize they were great at skydiving!" Scootaloo added.

Applebloom smiled. "That's great! What about you Sweetie?"

"Nothing lately, but these things don't happen all that often. We just act when needed, after all."

Applebloom nodded. "Ah know. Ah'm glad Ah've got this company now, gives me something else to do. How's your music career going Sweetie? I've heard your songs on the radios."

"It's great! Colortura and I just did an album together! It'll be out soon!" She squee'd.

Scootaloo whooped. "We're going up in the world girls! Our time has come!"

They all laughed.

"Thanks for being the demonstrators." Applebloom said.

"Are you kidding? I've always wanted to go to the moon!"

"Well yeah, but it's still awesome!"

There was a knock at the door.

"Who is it?" Applebloom asked.

"General Sammantha Carter is here to see you, ma'am."

Applebloom's eyes widened. "Show her in." She said as she quickly stashed the cider out of sight. She shook her head, trying to clear it. Then she gave Scootaloo the "don't say anything" look. She put on her businessmare smile.

"Ah General Carter! What a surprise!" She said.

"Miss Applebloom, the pleasure is all mine." Carter said. "I'm here to discuss the technical specifications of your ship and suggest a few improvements."

Something about this was fishy. Applebloom decided to go with it though. "Sweetie, Scootaloo, Ah'm sure you don't want to hear us technobabble for an hour. Hang out in the lobby. Ah'll be there before Pinkie starts the first-Equis-spaceship party."

"Okay." They said, trotting out.

Applebloom turned to Carter, "So, watcha want to know?"

"The material you made the Dawn out of, pearlstone."

"It's a naturally forming rock that can be used to channel magical energy in circuit patterns easily. With our magic we are able to shape it into whatever we need, in this case a teardrop shaped ship. It's durable, airtight, and most importantly it's the best material for magical construction."

Carter frowned. "It's not the best. At least, not the best on your planet."

Applebloom lost the smile. Then she hit a button under her desk disabling all surveillance and closing all the blinds. "Ah'm aware of starmetal General. There's a reason it's not in the Dawn. The Zebra's beliefs are that the material is cursed, and they're part of the program. We need to respect their wishes."

"If you are respecting their wishes, why is one of your associates - Goldenblood I believe - currently organizing the construction of a town overtop the largest vein of the material you know of?"

"Just because we aren't using it in our ships doesn't mean we can't research the material." Applebloom countered. "And plus, we still aren't using it in ships and all workers have the right to refuse to work with it. We're just doing it for science."

"I'm aware you are, for now." Carter sighed. "But eventually someone is probably going to discover something monumental about the material that could revolutionize your technology, and the Zebras won't be happy about it. You will have to choose to ignore the findings, or go ahead and pressure the Zebras into allowing it."

Applebloom shook her head. "Ah won't force them-"

"I know _you_ won't. At least not yet. But there will be others who want Equis to be strong and they won't want something as silly as a Zebra belief system to get in the way."

"Now listen here, their belief system isn't silly! The Stars are a very important part of their civilization-"

"But you're still investigating it despite their voices saying that it's pure evil." Carter pointed out.

"True…" Applebloom admitted. "But Ah'll try to make sure it doesn't get into any of the products."

Carter shook her head. "You'll need to be really careful. Your company is already expanding exponentially, you won't be able to keep track of it all. Just be careful, your world isn't used to large companies."

Applebloom nodded. "Ah'll try my best. But Ah won't stop the starmetal research - I'd much rather know if it's evil and dark rather than not."

"Just be careful. The life of a businessman _and_ a scientist can be… hard and dangerous."

"Ah'll keep it in mind." Applebloom smiled. "Now, Ah got a party to go to. See you there." And she walked out of the room. A moment later, Carter did the same.

She walked down the now-abandoned hallway, wondering why it was so empty. Then a unicorn she recognized walked out in front of her.

"Starlight?" She asked.

"Hey Carter." She frowned. "I can't tell you how I know this, but I've got some information for you."

Carter blinked. "Oh?"

"The Romulans have access to non-Equis magic and plan to use it against you somehow."

"How-"

"I can't tell you. We swore to secrecy. I'm sorry." She sighed.

Carter nodded. "It's fine. I understand. Thank you." Then she frowned, deep in thought. What were the Romulans going to try?

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

"TODAY IS A GOOD DAY TO DIE! TODAY, WE HEAD FOR MIDGARD! TODAY, WE BEGIN OUR REVENGE!"

"HOORAH!"

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

 ** _WARP THEATRE_**

In an area of space unknown to the rest of the races, there was a brilliant blue star. It's name was a complex series of chords and tones that would be meaningless to most races and sound like nothing more than a somewhat high-pitched resonation.

But to the race that called that star home, it was masterful art. And the race in question had made sure to dress the star accordingly.

A truly tremendous structure surrounded the star. Billions of miles of crystalline spindles surrounded the star, capturing the blue light of the star and refracting it into the cosmos. It spiraled off in all directions in various fractal patterns, further than any could see.

There were no free planets in the system, all were held in place by the Crown and completely coated in crystal from top to bottom. The entire system was a masterful piece of art.

One of these crystalized worlds was the homeworld to the race that built this structure, a world that was rich in crystalline caverns and thaumic energy. At the core of this world was a tremendous crystal structure, furnished with columns that glinted with unreal light and walls covered in intricate fractal pattern art. The atmosphere was filled with music, beautiful tones that would give any being with the gift of hearing a feeling of utter and complete awe.

There were a few "aliens" in the room - but it was by far dominated by the race itself.

Floating in the air, immobile, were dozens of giant crystals. All of them floated there, a pointed top and a pointed bottom, surrounded by extreme thaumic energy.

These were the Crystalline Ones, the musicians, the artists, the constructors. They all glowed with a different color, and though bluish was the most common (and the color of the Crown itself) there were also reds, greens, whites, and pinks there, floating. Singing to each other in their language of vibrations.

[The inhabitants of (untranslatable) have begun to worship us as gods.]

[Let them, though watch our people. We do not want another Cocoon.]

[How are operations on the problematic planet?]

[Our presence has, unfortunately, ignited a war. One side wants the benefit we offer, but the other is not willing to give up the planet.]

[Sometimes I wonder why we offer them a choice. It just causes more suffering when we can give them everything they need.]

[Free will is important, (untranslatable)]

[Why? Very few end up having any desire to involve themselves in the Crystalline Network. They are content to live out their lives as nothing more than pets]

[Watch your vibrations!]

[It's true, you have to admit.]

[But you also have to admit there are those who serve us well. Our l'cie are loyal even after they complete their initial focus.]

[Sometimes. You've heard of rebellion. Cocoon, for instance.]

[They were planning to mass sacrifice them for their stupid religion! There was good reason for rebellion!]

[Oh? And what about (untranslatable)?]

[That was an isolated incident.]

[But it does happen. It's a possibility. Why take a risk?]

[Because all sentient life is worth something. Free will is a gift. Even if we are the highest of them, we have to respect the opinions of the lower.]

The conversation was cut short as a priority message came through in the crystal channel. Everyone heard it.

[A tremendous power source has been detected to the galactic clockwise. The most perceptive of our number have confirmed that there is indeed a great beacon in the aether in that direction. It is unlike anything we have ever encountered.]

[Perhaps others like us?]

[Perhaps. It would be nice to have some equals.]

[Do not be hasty. It is not as strong as the Crown according to these readings. They could be just beginning, or it could be something completely different.]

[Whatever the matter, we must send some ships over to investigate.]

[Agreed. A matrix class vessel shall be routed that direction with an accompaniment of shards.]

[By chance can the ship load any of us? It's been a while since I left this place.]

[Too far away. You can always call another ship, I'm sure one of the Augmented Ones has extra space for one of us.]

[Nevermind then. I wanted some excitement. I'll wait for another opportunity.]

[As you wish.]

This entire exchange took place in a manner of seconds. The biological beings in the room, even though they had learned how to understand the language of the Crystalline Ones, could not keep up with the speed of the conversation. A few might have listened to the conversation slowed down later, but many wouldn't care.

Meanwhile, a matrix class vessel near the edge of Crystal space changed it's course to head towards the light in the aether. There were a few dozen Crystalline Ones on board, floating in the power generation area of the ship, providing the crystalline matrix with all it's thaumic power. Several biological beings branded as l'cie were there as well, serving as members of the crew. They called the ship the Trailblazer since its real name was unpronounceable.

At the front of the Trailblazer stood one of the on-board Augmented Ones, a masterpiece of magical engineering. Crystalline Ones, in their natural forms, were for the most part immobile creatures. But using a complex series of procedures, it was possible to break a Crystalline One into many shards, and attach them to a megitech body. Some Augmented Ones were obviously crystalline, with just a few mechanical limbs keeping large crystal shards together. Others were more mechanical, having dozens of tiny crystal shards running across their body. This particular Crystalline One went all the way - she appeared as a towering humanoid woman with no visible crystals on her smooth mechanical and pearly body. She had her original crystal completely pulverized into dust and embedded into her very essence. This allowed her to have the closest connection to her body possible. Rather than just mechanical attachments, the body _was_ her.

And she took a name as well. Madeline.

"Madeline…" One of the l'cie - a human - said. "Where are we going?"

She smirked, speaking with one of the most detailed synthetic voices available. It sounded like she sung everything she spoke. "To a mystery my dear. To a mystery."

The Trailblazer shot out into the unexplored night…

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

The Tau Ethereals looked at each other, concern on their faces.

"The cosmos have been thrown into even further turmoil than they were in before, and we didn't even think that was possible!" Tsu'bin said, annoyed.

"Never underestimate a stranger… A proverb we should have heeded." Irahor pointed out.

"It truly was unexpected for them to take an avenue aside from conquering to gain territory." The third, Fir'or, said.

"A taste of our own medicine I suppose…" Irahor observed.

Tsu'bin twitched. "It will only be a matter of time until they turn their attention away from the Imperium and others and onto us. We need to take some kind of action."

"Well we're fighting the Imperium.." Fir'or noted.

Tsu'bin sighed. "That's a waste of resources. Few of them join us willingly, and it's just keeping us from progressing…"

"Here's a crazy idea." Fir'or said. "How about we start expanding our borders to the uncontested Galactic clockwise! There's nothing there!"

"Exactly. Nothing there. Nothing to take." Tsu'bin grunted.

Irahor blinked. "There may be worthwhile resources there. We can easily divert resources from the Imperium Front to explore out that direction. Perhaps we could even find new allies. If nothing else, a place to live if the Ori finally decide to push against us."

"A fallback plan?"

"Exactly. We are being attacked on all sides, and to be honest, we are only surviving because those sides are busy fighting each other. If any one of them decided to focus their attention on us, we'd be gone. We need a contingency."

Fir'or smiled. "Is it settled then?"

"Send a group of scout ships and colony ships. We shall expand our borders and further the Greater Good without bloodshed… the other races will just have to deal without our gift."

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

Momo jerked awake and accidentally smacked her head on the lip of her stasis coffin as it slid open. She would have been annoyed by this, had she not currently been preoccupied with the muscle spasms that were wracking her body. This was an expected side effect of SUN-FR, the X-O Knight of which she was the pilot, synching Momo's nervous system with SUN-FR's various data streams. However, rapidly synching with a pilot who had just undergone emergency stasis-revival was generally considered a bad idea. Side effects might include seizures, synesthesia, brain damage, aphasia, comas, and death. The muscle spasms eventually passed and Momo lay on the floor, her chest pumping like a forge's bellows as she recovered from her rude awakening. Her righteous anger quickly died in the face of the diagnostic readouts that were now racing through her mind, and Momo tremulously pushed herself to her feet as soon as she was able.

"I'm sorry about that, Momo, but as you can see, we've got a serious problem." SUN-FR, or Sunflower, whispered in Momo's mind.

"Yeah, how in the Deadside did your hyper-light engines malfunction?" Momo asked through the neural link as she touched the floor and focused. Her world blurred into streaks of light and jagged fractal lines as her Livewire infused body was transmitted through Sunflower's circuits and into the floating circular rings of the pilot's station.

"Unknown. I detected an odd space-time distortion, which I suspect is the reason for the engine failure, but I can't be certain," Sunflower replied. Indeed, Momo could feel a sympathetic tingling sensation in her thighs and calves as she tried to make sense of her friend and primary means of transportation's situation.

"Okay, we're on a ballistic path towards a planet with no engines... that's bad. Sunflower, could you do me a favor and rouse Captain Jhukka and Commander Trill?" Momo's eye flickered furiously between displays only she could see as she scrambled for possible solutions.

"Revival in progress. I have attitude and maneuvering thrusters only, but it might be enough..."

"To put us on a proper orbital reentry path and make sure we don't hit anything important, gotcha!" Momo completed Sunflower's sentence, already searching for the best spot to crash near. Sunflower's sensor's informed her that the planet they were approaching was well suited to human life, with lush forests and plains.

"Hmm, I'm detecting signs of civilization... relatively close to Old Terra's mid twenty-first century, though with a better form of energy generation, going by how well preserved the biosphere is," Momo muttered.

"The forests would probably be best," Sunflower recommended helpfully. "Captain Jhukka is awake and should be here shortly, as will Commander Trill."

"Mmhm," Momo grunted as she decided on the best landing zone. "Okay Sunflower, I'm designating our ideal landing zone, in addition to three or four backups." Momo highlighted the primary LZ, a section of coastal woodland that was relatively close to one of the population centers, but still remote enough to not appear threatening and with terrain rough enough to be easily defensible.

"Ah, an excellent choice," Sunflower agreed.

"Sunflower, Momo, what's going on here?" Captain Jhukka demanded. Unlike Momo, who was tall and willowy with hip length purple hair, Captain Jhukka was of average height and athletically built, with shoulder length blonde hair that was currently hidden beneath the blue cat-like helm of her Manowar Armor.

"Sunflower took a bad hit to her hyper-light engines and we're going to have to make an emergency landing on this," Momo brought up a visual readout of the planet, "Pretty little chunk of dirt. I've already selected an ideal landing zone."

"And there's no way we can avert the landing?" Commander Trill asked in his unique clicking voice.

"Nope. The engines have overloaded something fierce, and it looks like its going to be months before they're healed enough to travel. It's like being hamstrung," Momo explained to the Vine commander.

Unlike Momo and Jhukka, who were human, Trill was Vine. Once upon a time, humans and Vine had rather disliked each other, but a few millennia did wonders for healing old wounds. Now the six eyed insectoids worked hand in hand with humanity. Or at least, they did on Sunflower. Momo wasn't sure about how it worked on the other X-O Knights, seeing as how the escape fleet from Old Terra had gotten rather scattered over the centuries. Some of the Knights had chosen to settle new worlds, others had left in different directions, to the point where it had been at least sixty years since Sunflower had encountered another of her kind. After all, space was big, and there'd never been all that many of them in the first place.

"How long until we crash?" Captain Jhukka asked.

"Well, the good news is that we have time. About an hour and a half or so. The bad news is that's still cutting the proper adjustments we need to make for orbital reentry pretty damn close. We're trying to do this on basic maneuvering thrusters, which is pretty damn hard considering our mass and speed," Momo reported as she and Sunflower moved in perfect synch with each other.

"Just do what you can and try to get us down in one piece," Jhukka reassured them.

"Could we try for an orbital insertion? Wouldn't that be safer?" Commander Trill asked.

"No, we're coming in at the wrong angle for a proper orbital insertion and, again, we can't really maneuver," Momo shook her head.

"Well, okay then. Uh... these grav-harnesses are rated for ballistic orbital reentry, right?"

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

"General Ironwood, we've got something on the scopes!" General James Ironwood's heart practically leapt into his mouth at the technician's fearful call. It was about two in the morning and he'd just been rudely awakened by his scroll's emergency alarm.

"Tell me everything," he barked as he jumped out of bed and began to pull on his pants. This had better not be more fucking Orks! He wasn't sure Remnant could survive another Ork invasion, seeing as how they were still dealing with roving warbands from the last one.

"It... doesn't look like Orks, sir. In fact, it kinda looks like something we would build, only way bigger and kinda organic. The object is roughly humanoid from what we can tell, and looks a bit like one of our Knights, only squatter and colored yellow. It... appears to be making course corrections. Or at least it's trying to... we think," the technician trailed off, and Ironwood could hear quite a bit of frantic yelling in the background.

"Okay, more data, sir. It appears to be spreading into a freefall position, and its projected point of impact is a couple hundred or so kilometers from Vale."

"Understood, I'll be there in ten minutes. Get Ozpin on the horn and ready a battlegroup for deployment," Ironwood instructed as he pulled on his socks and draped his tie over his shoulder. He could put the stupid choking hazard on properly on the car ride over.

"We're working on it sir."

"Good, and make sure there's coffee."

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

"Well, that wasn't so bad now was it?" Momo asked cheerfully as she struggled to maintain her grip on the out ring of her station. Her grav-harness had mostly protected her, but the impact had still been enough to toss her clear of its protective bubble.

"Well I certainly have any problems," Captain Jhukka agreed smugly. She'd used her armor's flight systems to cheat and was now hovering in the middle of the bridge.

"I hate both of you. I just want you to know that," Trill growled as he gingerly tried to stand up. Unlike his captain or their pilot, he'd been unlucky enough to be tossed free of his grav-harness and clear across the bridge. Trill's armor had protected him from the impact well enough, but the poor Vine commander was almost three thousand years old by now, and was certainly not the spitting image of military health and athleticism he'd once been.

"Sunflower, you okay baby?" Momo asked through her link with the massive X-O Knight. She didn't actually need to, considering she was receiving the same diagnostic feedback that Sunflower was, but Momo felt it was only polite to ask properly.

"No, not really. I have sustained moderate damage to several systems, and repairs will take at least six months," Sunflower reported unhappily.

"How's the crew doing? Any injuries or fatalities?" Jhukka asked her pilot.

"Yeah. Three deaths on stasis bay four, and quite a few busted bones. Luckily our Psiot healers should be able to fix everyone up no problem," Momo reported somberly. There were only about two hundred people on-board, and even though Sunflower contained a massive genebank for terraforming and racial reseeding purposes, it didn't change the fact that three people she'd known for almost fifteen hundred years were now gone.

"Alright. Can Sunflower move?" Jhukka inquired.

"Not really. Best we can get is a sitting position right now. Sunflower's lost almost seventy percent of the muscle fibers on her legs from the crash. I mean, they'll grow back relatively quickly since those are the easiest systems to repair, but we're still looking at three weeks for full mobility."

Jhukka nodded.

"Okay, it's not ideal, but we can manage. Sunflower, I need you to revive everyone. We're going to need all hands on deck. And besides, I see no reason why we should all miss out on being planet side for a while."

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

"So, I think we all learned something today," Captain Jhukka remarked casually as she stared at the fleet of airships hovering over the area she had jokingly taken to calling her front lawn.

"Yep. The locals are humans too, which is so utterly improbable that I don't actually have the necessary words for how improbable it is, and their world is filled with murderous bio-weapons." Momo responded. It had all started with an attack on one of the scavenger teams by a bunch of large black skinned things that looked like bears. Nobody had been hurt, but one of the team members, a Psiot who went by the call sign Chirurgen, had said that his powers had given him an extensive diagnostic of the animals, and that they were mildly empathic bio-weapons. Everyone had agreed that this was a bad thing.

Of course, things had just gotten stranger when Sunflower had detected an airship battlegroup approaching their location. Luckily, their first contact with the locals had been far less violent than their first contact with the fauna, though far more perplexing. Humans. There were humans here. And a subspecies called the Faunus who were just humans but with animal traits tacked on. All in all, it wasn't the weirdest thing anybody on the ship had seen, but it was pretty high up there.

"Are you really planning on going over there by yourself, my queen?" Commander Trill asked unhappily.

"Yep. This Ironwood fellow seems like a straight shooter. Of course, make sure to have our various strike teams on standby," Jhukka declared as her helmet wrapped itself around her head. "Besides, I can handle myself if things get sketchy."

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

"Okay, so these Orks invaded you two years ago? Well, now I guess your little battlegroup makes sense." Jhukka observed as she ducked a swing from a giant green gorilla looking being that was wielding a sword made out of hammered scrap metal.

"Yes, we weren't sure if you were hostile or not, so..." General Ironwood replied as he carefully lined up a shot with his large nickel plated revolver. The boom of his firearm coincided with the loud 'paff' of Jhukka's forearm mounted particle cannon as they both blew open their respective opponent's heads.

"Your men quite impressive," Ironwood observed as Jhukka's strike teams worked in tandem with Ironwood's brightly attired specialists to finish off the few remaining Orks.

"Thanks, yours aren't half bad either."

"And you said your people don't have Auras like we do? or at least, can't physically manifest them?" Ironwood asked curiously.

"Nope, just Psiot abilities and technology. I, for one, am curious about this Aura of yours. We've been able to prove the existence of souls, but i've never heard of _anyone_ using theirs to achieve an effect like your people do. From my understanding, usually you have to use other people's." Jhukka asked in a similar tone of voice.

"So... trade?" Ironwood inquired.

"Sure, what have you got?" Jhukka replied.

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

It had been a week since the Ork warband attack, and Jhukka was beginning to thoroughly regret agreeing to hash out a trade deal. Oh, she liked Ironwood and his soldiers just fine, but she was most definitely her father's daughter, and found these necessary talks interminable. Still, she was the queen of her people, and so she would suffer through them for her people's sake. At least Momo was here to actually do most of the heavy lifting in regards to the fine print. The purple haired woman's connection to Sunflower, in addition to the data dump they'd received from Ironwood's first contact party, had allowed her to act as a pretty good stand in for a lawyer and negotiator.

"Okay, but your scientists and engineers will have to come here if they want to work with us." Jhukka tuned back in to what Momo was saying to one of the men who'd been particularly insistent on engaging in a technological exchange. It appeared to be mostly because of excitement at the boundless research opportunities, but Jhukka remained suspicious. She knew just how short sighted and violent people could be. Honestly, the only reason that she was even willing to allow Remnant's scientists to study her technology in the first place was because their resident Wise Woman, Alyssa LeBreton, was practically dying to study how souls worked in conjunction with the Deadside here.

"They'll need a cadre of Hunters to provide protection, and more static defenses against Grimm," another man chimed in.

"That's acceptable," Jhukka declared imperiously. Her Psiots could sweep the scientists' and hunters' minds for subterfuge, and she'd been very careful to keep that little tidbit of information quiet.

"Then we're agreed. Steady supplies of Dust and fresh produce in exchange for the opportunity to study your technology, with equal access to potential manufacturing facilities if reverse engineering becomes viable," the lead negotiator, a small woman named Glim happily concluded.

"It is done," Jhukka agreed before standing up and clasping Glim's forearm in the traditional Visigoth handshake.

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

IMPERIUM OF MAN TACTICAL REPORT: TYRANIDS

Praise to the Emperor!

A disturbing development has occurred within the Tyranid swarms. During our last dozen encounters with them, a new type of Tyranid has been observed. These Tyranids are large and glow with an unholy light. They seem to have adapted the powers of an Ori Prior into their genetic makeup.

It was thought that Tyranids could not have psyker capabilities, but that is either false or the Priors are not psykers as we know them. Regardless this is devastating news. All combat encounters with Prior Tyranids has resulted in failure save for three. Two were caught unawares by space marines, and one lost in a direct duel with one of our own psykers. Unfortunately the psyker in question went mad after the duel, and we lost a powerful asset.

Prior Tyranids have been observed using all the powers that a normal Ori Prior has, made even worse with their more durable bodies.

It is imperative that we find a way to combat this threat.

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

Firla cackled.

This was certainly amusing.

Here was an Imperium and Eldar fleet going at it, trying to blast each other to pieces.

Then she showed up with her Ori fleet and both sides instantly forgot about each other and began blasting at the Ori. Apparently this group of Eldar had not gotten the "appear to be cooperating" memo.

Firla slowly destroyed the ships one by one. Imperium. Eldar. Imperium. Eldar.

So what if some of her own ships were being blown up? She didn't care. She wanted to show these mortals how pathetic their efforts truly were. They could do nothing to her. Nothing at all.

Suddenly, a group of Eldar-like ships dropped out of the warp. Firla instantly stopped her attack and slowly turned to look at the dark, angular ships. Something about them just seemed… wrong. Evil.

They fired some kind of gigantic laser at her. And she felt _pain._ In the back of her mind, she knew the pain was only superficial - they were unable to actually cause any damage to her given her ascended nature. But they were sure making her _feel_ like it hurt. She felt like she was on fire and frozen at the same time, then torn through a space-time disturbance!

She roared, teleporting herself to the bridge. Sitting there was a bunch of Dark Eldar who appeared to be in ecstasy.

 **"How DARE you harm an ORI!"**

The Dark Eldar commander simply laughed while grinning. "You don't get it do you? You are the strongest and most powerful beings we have access to! How could we _not_ take up the opportunity to drink up such delicious and powerful suffering!"

 **"YOU WILL DIE FOR YOUR INSOLENCE! WAS IT WORTH IT MORTAL?"**

The Dark Eldar looked her right in the ethereal face. He grinned. "Yes."

This gave Firla pause. She actually _shuddered._ That was… That wasn't right.

She blew up all the Dark Eldar ships within a few seconds, then waved a hand to decimate the other fleets in under a minute.

"It is time to leave." Firla was done playing for the day.

The Dark Eldar should were sucked into the Warp - and they were still laughing.

Firla added the Dark Eldar to her list of things to completely erradicate.

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

"The Dark Eldar had a primitive device."

"It is of no use to us. Our weapons can actually remove them. That was nothing more than a toy."

"It is all they needed, after all. I often wonder if they truly have any desire to keep living at all."

"They are a paradox. They go to such lengths to keep themselves alive, and yet they put themselves in life threatening danger habitually."

"No matter, they are not important. We need to fine-tune our devices. They are not designed to face this kind of enemy. They are different from the C'tan. They have no physical essence."

"They are pure energy, which means something good for us."

"The ballistic design of the weapon is no longer needed. We could replace it with a focused and high-frequency transmitter."

"A dish device should be adequate to channel the energies into a narrow band pulse. If we had a strong enough transmitter, we could in theory clear out light years of area."

"Research into stronger transmitters will be underway shortly. Until then, what we have should be adequate for the moment."

"Assuming something is Adequate can lead to a fall. We must tread carefully."

"It is unfortunate that we cannot capture them and force them to serve us."

"It is only impossible with our current level of technology. We may one day develop to the needed level. At that point perhaps we can give ourselves souls again."

"Perhaps."

Then the Necron transmission ended.

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

Well _that_ was a pleasant image of an Ori being blown up by an invisible force. The Eldar Farseer had to admit, it was always nice to see enemies.

It was just unfortunate that the Necrons seemed to be the only hope the Eldar had right now. That was not making the Eldar happy. It was making them very angry in fact and the Farseer suspected that if the Ori were defeated, the Eldar would consider any means necessary to make sure the Necrons didn't get the credit. And were eradicated. The Eldar Farseer, though, did not see a path where the Eldar were likely to succeed in their venture.

He frowned as he looked into the future paths.

Chaos had gotten oddly quiet… Perhaps they were plotting something? He'd have to look into that.

He was interrupted by a flash of white light. He knew instantly than an Ori stood before him.

"Iris." He said.

"Ah, so your powers have revealed my name to you? Interesting." She said as she took her humanoid form. "Interesting indeed."

"Why are you here?"

"You and I both know the Eldar are only pretending to co-operate. We receive little to no worship energy from them."

The Farseer said nothing.

"I'm simply here because you seem to be the most sick of the state of affairs in the cosmos."

"I will not give in to your preaching. Or the mental manipulations. I am an old and experienced Farseer. Your parlor tricks will not work on me, so just kill me or leave."

iris frowned. "You're right. Your mind has continued unaltered. I'm very interested to see how you've managed to resist my mental pushes."

"I will tell you nothing."

"And for the first time in a while, that sentence is actually true." Iris smirked. "You're really something, you know that?"

"I am simply a Farseer."

"Who is sick and tired of the way things are."

"Like your way is better."

A twinkle appeared in her eye. "Forced worship is… distasteful, I admit. I currently don't see any other way, however."

"Lies."

"Do I really look like someone who would resort to blatant lies? Half-truths, and left out information yes - but blatant lies? I'm smarter than that."

The Eldar Farseer furrowed his brow. "Perhaps." He glared at her. "Why are you really here?"

"I'm here to ask you for what you see in the future, since you've shielded your mind from me somehow. What do you see of me? Of the cosmos? Of the Ori? Of Chaos?"

"I see destruction, death, or subjugation. Right now the timelines are split between you, the Necrons, and Chaos. You will subjugate everyone, Chaos will bring forth destruction, and the Necrons in most futures bring about death."

"Most?"

"In some they undergo a revolution and decide to share the world with everyone, but this is a rare future and is likely just an outlier."

"And what are the outlier futures for the Ori? For Chaos?"

"For the Ori there is a future where, after you are defeated, something makes all of you godlike begins just vanish. After many years of subjugation though… As for the Chaos outliers…" He shuddered. "Don't ask me to dwell on those."

Iris nodded. "Of course." She looked back at him. "You know I'll be back here, right?"

"Yes. And I also know the other Ori would disprove of you consulting me."

"Clever boy."

"We are both walking dangerous lines."

"Ah. You understand."

The Eldar Farseer went back to his searching of the cosmos…

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

Within Chaos Space, there stood what many would hesitate to call a man, but a man he once was. Now, however, he was a glowing humanoid creature covered in dark cloaks. He looked into the futures.

The Chaos Sorcerer grinned. "They don't suspect a thing."

Another voice echoed in his mind. " ** _Exactly. As. Planned."_**

Then he cackled.


	6. T-MINUS 246 YEARS

**_T-MINUS 246 YEARS_**

 ** _(ORBSyndicate)_**

 ** _EARTH THEATRE_**

Daniel, O'Neill, Carter, _and_ Teal'c were all in the same room for the first time in years. They only wished it was under better circumstances.

"Can't we just, you know, tell everyone that we are not responsible for all these attacks?" O'Neill muttered.

Daniel shook his head. "Even if we aren't ordering them, all the fingers point to our own people performing them. Just look at the evidence. Unknown types of thaumic energy exploding in nearby territories. Vulcans, Andorians, Tellarites, _and_ Jaffa have been hit by these unknown devices. We know it's not the Reform and Equi - we can scan their powers and identify their use…"

Carter sighed. "And these devices to not match any of their signatures… so naturally, the only other ones with any known magic and the resources to pull off this many attacks in different places is us. Or our citizens."

Teal'c nodded. "Indeed. The Jaffa do not trust your people anymore. They still celebrate you as heroes and saviors, but believe you need to get a tighter reign on your wizards."

Daniel sighed. "I'm positive that these attacks have not been carried out by the wizards. What would they stand to gain? And why wouldn't they be lashing out at us? The kind who would do this hate us just as much."

"There have been confirmed terrorist attacks on Earth." Carter pointed out.

"Yes, but they were all carried out differently, and the people responsible for them were caught. All these detonations have left no trail whatsoever." He sighed.

O'Neill shrugged. "We all know it's the Romulans."

Teal'c raised an eyebrow. "The only evidence we have corroborating that is the unofficial word of an Equi unicorn."

"Yes, I know that, and that's why we've invited her here today. To see what else we can get." Carter frowned. "Though I would like to know why the Romulans want to make us untrustworthy so badly…"

"We shall ask them when we find them." Teal'c said. "Let us question this unicorn."

A buzz filled the room. "That must be her." Carter said, opening the door. "Come on in Starlight."

The unicorn did so, a blank expression plastered on her face. "Why did you call me here?" As she said this, her horn lit up as she levitated a scroll out of her saddlebags.

"We are here to ask you where you got the information about the Romulans." O'Neill said quickly. "What? We need to get to the point don't we?"

Starlight sighed. "You know that officially the Equi made no such remark. And you know I cannot tell you where I got that information. I just tried to warn you - it evidentially didn't do any good." She sighed. "I'm sorry, but there's nothing I can do. I have to protect the informants."

Teal'c raised an eyebrow. "Why do they deserve your protection?"

"They went agains the wishes of their government and gave out the information they discovered. But they told us as a middleman so the information could never be traced back to them. They went to some great lengths to do this - and if I expose them they will likely be punished. And, secondarily, not be able to give more information later if they need to."

O'Neill looked ready to object, but Daniel held up a hand. "She's right. We don't have any proof - we just have to go with what we have. Thank you for your time Starlight."

Starlight smiled. "Thank you Doctor Jackson. I'll be off then." She stopped in the doorway, turning back to look at them with a clever smirk. "Oh, and don't think about using the recorder in this room as evidence, I enchanted it to hear nothing but a catchy gum commercial." She giggled as she walked away.

O'Neill blinked. "That unicorn knows what's up."

"Indeed." Teal'c said.

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

The Serrakin Twoshoes was enjoying this time of relaxation. Being a ship in orbit around Midgard was just.. peaceful.

Nothing really bad ever happened on Midgard. It was a peaceful world of commerce. And Twoshoes had nothing to do with the politics or economy - he was just here to make sure nothing exploded.

And nothing ever did. It was nice.

Though deep down he wondered if that just meant that one day something was going to go really wrong-

At that moment, five dozen green ships dropped out of warp and began firing. Ulysses' shields went up automatically, and Twoshoes leapt to attention. "What is it?"

"Klingons just appeared out of nowhere! And they're _all_ attacking us! Shields at 75% and falling!"

"LET IT BE KNOWN TAU'RI, THAT THE KLINGON EMPIRE IS EXACTING REVENGE UPON YOU FOR GIVING OUR BROTHER, KARTHA SON OF RACH, A DISHONORABLE DEATH! YOU WILL SUFFER FOR YOUR DISHONOR! THIS IS WAR!"

"Sheilds at 60% sir! If this keeps up, the laser isn't going to be enough to keep us together! not even close!"

"Activate all weapons!" Twoshoes. "And send a message to Eearth!" He growled. "Time to show these Klingons what we're like when we're _not holding back."_

The Ulysses opened up all weapons bays. The dozens of rail guns opened fire, impacting the Klingon torpedoes before they even hit the shields. All four of the Asgard Precision Lasers activated, each killing an entire ship with each shot. Missiles were launched in several volleys, destroying several Klingon ships with nice explosions.

But all these paled in comparison to the Drones as soon as they were unleashed - the glowing yellow squid-like projectiles went right through the Klingon's shields, passed completely through the ship as it exploded, and then moved onto _another_ ship to destroy _it._ Each Drone managed to take out 3-4 ships on their course through the battlefield.

But even with these impressive armaments, the Ulysses could only withstand so much punishment. Shields fell. 50. 40. 30. 20. 10.

Twoshoes roared. "There's only twelve of them remaining! We can do this!"

"Sir, they just unleashed a coordinated attack. Those torpedoes are going to hit a focused point on the shields-"

Sure enough, a line of photon torpedoes impacted a singular spot on the extremely impressive shields of the Odyssey. They broke through, like a nail being driven by a hammer. And the photon torpedoes destroyed the bridge first, and explosions rippled throughout the ship.

Unlike the Klingon Birds of Prey, which were completely destroyed, the Ulysses just became a dead husk floating in space.

The Klingons roared. "YES! KAYLESS'S BLADE YES! AHAHAHAHAHAH! THOUGHT THEY WERE INVINCIBLE DID THEY? _DID_ THEY?"

Their celebrations were cut short.

For the ground defenses of the Nexus had finally targeted them. Enormous plasma bolts engulfed the ships, destroying the remaining Klingons in a matter of seconds.

The war had begun.

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

Daniel had to, once again, become the face of the Tau'ri. He wondered how his life had turned from being a little known archeologist to becoming the face of Earth in just a couple decades.

"At exactly 2:34 PM, Universal Time, the world of Midgard was assaulted by a fleet of roughly five dozen Klingon vessels, seeking to avenge some alleged dishonor we performed on who we presume to be the Klingon who crash landed there and died in our custody.

In the process of the attack, the Daedalus class vessel Ulysses was destroyed, the crew valiantly giving their lives to protect the citizens of Midgard long enough for the surface weapons to power up and take care of the remaining Klingons.

While we would normally seek out peace and talks first, we doubt this is going to happen. The Klingon Empire has evidentially declared war on us, and we must respond in kind. We do not know exactly when they will come or from what direction, but we will defend ourselves from their militaristic ideas.

We extend our arm out to our allies to help us in this struggle against the Klingon Empire. Perhaps if we show them that we stand together, we can stop this pointless war before it goes to far.

All we ask of our citizens is to remain calm and don't interfere with military operations. That is all. Thank you."

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

Odin the Asgard Intelligence was exploring the Internet. It was on fire.

Various world leaders had given follow-up speeches to Daniels. Most agreed with the Ambassador and pledged their nation's assistance in the war if it was needed. A few didn't say anything. And three openly accused the Tau'ri over-government of going to war too quickly, apparently taking no notice that the Klingons had already declared war on them.

Crime rose quickly as people started to panic - but it was unexpectedly curbed by an unusual event.

People with unusual powers - presumably magical, but a few were obviously technological - had taken up putting on costumes and masks to become "superheroes." Evidentially they weren't ready to come out into the open yet - but they wanted to use their abilities to help others.

There was this Spiderman who used the powers of a spider to catch crooks. An Iron Man who flew around in an iron suit with the most cutting edge technology. Some old American soldier experiment called Captain America. The Batman. They had come out of the shadows en masse and in costume to save the world however they could. Right now, their main foes seemed to be wizard terrorists. Though Odin already saw a few others with unusual abilities taking up a costume not to help others - but to further their own desires. The acts some of these people did disturbed Odin greatly.

Odin suspected that these masked heroes would do more harm than good in the long run - people may not trust them. Though to be fair, they were at least trying to come into the open, unlike another organization that somehow managed to keep hiding itself from Odin's observations…

Odin, quite frankly, didn't like not knowing things.

He would try to root them out, though they always seemed to get away…

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

O'Neill groaned. "Why Teal'c? Why can't you offer any Jaffa?"

"The Council does not wish to get involved with those who are attacking us."

"You and I both know that isn't us!"

Teal'c raised an eyebrow. "Indeed. Brae'tac and I have been trying to inform the Council of that, but there are worried Jaffa. And Jaffa who want to distance themselves from you and are looking for any excuse to do it."

"Why do I get the feeling that this is exactly what the Romulans want… to drive us apart…"

"No doubt. But there is not much we can do to stop it without proof now is there?"

O'Neill groaned. "Well at least the Reform is helping us. That's good. We'll probably stomp them."

Suddenly, O'Neill sat up alarmed. "What on earth did I just SAY? STUPID."

Teal'c let the slightest hint of a smirk climb onto his face. "Perhaps you need more assistance than I thought. I hear a bunch of Ha'taks are planning to leave Sokar Port against orders from the Council. But what would I know?"

O'Neill laughed. "Teal'c, did I ever tell you how awesome you were?"

"Many times, O'Neill."

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

A Klingon Fleet appeared above Langara, prepared to destroy the industrial livelihood of the Tau'ri. What they were not expecting was three Deadalus class ships, two Reform ships, and the Enterprise to also be there.

O'Neill grinned. "So… seventy ships against our six. I like those odds. Fire away!"

Drones, beam weapons, and missiles flew across the void into the Klingon ranks. Their ships exploded by the dozen, but this didn't cause them to falter. They were _good_ at war - they made sure to focus all fire on a ship they were sure they could destroy. It was as if they knew the Tau'ri only had a limited store of ships… while the Klingons may have had anywhere around a thousand.

The Klingons could wear the forces thin, eventually…

O'Neill cursed as a Reform warship exploded, and a few of the photon torpedoes impacted the surface of Langara.

One of the Klingon ships evidentially got the idea that it wasn't going to survive the encounter, and it began on a ramming course towards the surface of Langara. O'Neill saw it, and ordered the asgard laser to take it out.

He didn't have to. Four cloaked Ha'taks appeared, blasting the already-damaged ship to pieces with their plasma fire.

O'Neill smirked. He liked those Ha'taks and their cloaks.

It was another victory for the Tau'ri.

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

"Total number of conflicts: 11. Ships lost: 6 Deadalus class, and 9 Ori warships. Total number of Klingon casualties - 434 ships of varying classes." General Carter looked away from the projection. "Our reconnaissance vessels have determined that the Klingons maybe only have a thousand more ships in reserve that are ready to go. They cannot keep up like this for much longer. Our remaining 23 Deadalus class ships, 15 Ha'taks, and 10 on-loan Ori warships should be enough. We may even be able to send some effort back to the Pegasus Sector to deal with the conflict there. Assuming nothing goes wrong, we will win this war within two months."

She looked into the eye of all the military personnel there. "That being said, I need contingency plans for when things _do_ go wrong. Trust me, they will. It's only a matter of time. And if nothing does, no one is going to fault us for being prepared."

A colonel spoke up. "Worst case scenario, they have some kind of ally we aren't aware of."

"Our reconnaissance indicates that they have an enemy - they share a border with a race called the Cardassians. Skirmishes are common but they've fought to a stalemate many many times from what we can tell. There's no allies there, anti-Cardassian sentiment is high within the Klingon Empire."

"Then what if they ally with another force? One here?"

"Who here would be stupid enough to attack us?"

"Well…"

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

The human man smirked. "So it's a deal then?"

"Erin son of Ulther, it will be an honor to ally with you to vanquish our enemies."

"Then let it be made official. The Lucian Alliance and the Klingon Empire are now blood allies in the fight against the Tai'ri." Erin the Lucian smirked. "I expect this to be the start of a long and glorious friendship."

"I can appreciate a man like you! You understand he honor of battle!"

Erin nodded. "Our own allies, the Andorians, are likely to offer some assistance. Though they are an honorable and strong species, they are not as numerous as either of us."

"Perhaps we can show them the way then, brother!"

"Yes. Perhaps."

And with that, things got more complicated.

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

Twilight Sparkle took a breath. "People of the universe! You may know me as Twilight Sparkle, Princess of Equestria.

I want it to be made clear that we do not wish you to continue this war. Look at what you're doing! People are dying! You are destroying each others unique cultures!

Andorians! Is it really worth it to resort to mass killing to protect your pride?

Lucians! Surely you can make a way in the Galaxy while adhering to the reasonable desires of the other nations?

Klingons! Your species is one that takes much pleasure in battle and competition - but surely you can respect that this is not the way for everyone? I know you have to have farmers and regular workers somewhere in your Empire - you can't all be nothing but soldiers.

In addition, surely by now your brother has been avenged. Hundreds have died already.

Reform! Your nation preaches peace, prosperity, and tolerance - why then do you accelerate the violence?

And Tau'ri - why do you encourage your allies to enter the combat with you? Granted, you are not to blame for starting the war - but by asking for others to join in the cause you have likely caused the Lucians to ally with the Klingons, only worsening the conflict. You could have won without that.

We offer our people to help broker peace in this pointless war - perhaps we can all come together in peace and friendship."

Twilight Sparkle's speech would go down in history - but it would only solidify the Equi ponies as diplomats. It did not end the Klingon war. That just dragged on.

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

"General! We aren't going to make it!"

O'Neill cursed. Ha'taks, Birds of Prey, and Andorian Ships surrounded them on all sides. The Enterprise, even with all the overkill weapons it had, was not going to survive an encounter with this many ships. And jumping into hyperspace in this close of quarters was not advised.

"Crap-tastic." He muttered. He had honestly not imagined going this way. He often imagined being brutally torn to shreds by some overly hammy evil villain, destroyed by some strange greater evil, or one of Carter's experiments.

Just a normal death in battle?

That was… a bit normal for him to be honest.

"Sir! We're detecting a giant wormhole!"

"What?"

"Starboard-"

A bright flash lit up the cosmos before fading, revealing a welcome familiar sight. A roughly hexagonal structure stood before them, with dozens of tall skyscraper spires that pierced the heavens, and a gigantic shield around it. It glowed with blue and yellow lights, Ancient technology drawing attention.

The great city-ship of Atlantis had arrived.

Instantly _hundreds_ of drones shot out of the city's bays, making quick work of the enemy fleet.

O'Neill laughed. "Call Shepard and thank him for the just-in-time save. Now let's turn this war around with a nigh-invincible city-ship!"

Shepard responded. "Glad to hear it General. Now we here at Atlantis decided that we should throw a banquet in your honor-"

McKay cut in. "Shepard! We were going to have that feast anyway! You just want an excuse to eat a lot!"

"You're just mad because the theme is lemons this time."

"Yes! Yes I am!"

"Don't worry I hear the chicken is-"

"YOU KNOW PERFECTLY WELL IT'S LEMON CHICKEN SHEPARD!"

Shepard laughed. "There's food O'Neill. Come eat. I hear it's good. Then we can discuss all this unfortunate business of war. Though I do admit I did enjoy being the overpowered one for once."

"How is the Wraith offensive going?"

"It isn't. They've taken to hiding a bit more and attacking when we aren't that aware of it. There aren't as many Wraith as before, but we can't keep track of all the worlds in the Pegasus sector… I believe some have decided to try and leave the area and try their luck elsewhere. We don't think there are any human worlds out there, but we can't be sure."

O'Neill sighed. "Well, let's wrap up this war and I'm sure we can figure something out. How's the Star Drive doing McKay?"

"Fried like an egg. It's going to take forever to fix."

O'Neill put a hand to his ear. "You hear that? That's… That's the sound of our enemies thinking we have an advantage we don't have."

Shepard smiled.

"And the sound of days worth of hard backbreaking labor for McKay."

"OH COME ON!"

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

Vulcans didn't smirk.

Okay, perhaps that wasn't true - but Vulcan _ambassadors_ didn't smirk. But nonetheless, to Daniel's surprise, the ambassador was smirking. Granted, she was doing it when no-one was watching, but she was nonetheless.

It was.. concerning. Perhaps during normal times, he would have dismissed it. But one thought made him pause: did Romulans smirk?

He supposed there was one way to find out. Even though the Ambassador had passed the tests before, something could have changed.

"Ambassador?" He asked. "I'd like to speak with you in my office please."

The Ambassador's smirk vanished, replaced by the normal stoic expression. "Of course, Doctor Jackson." She walked besides him. "What about?"

"Some new security measures we are implementing. I want to know if your people will accept them."

"We will accept any screening procedure that isn't barbaric."

"Good. It's just a simple DNA test. I have a device on the table. We're going to screen everyone in key positions - you've probably heard of us testing some random individuals form time to time."

"The Andorians were not pleased when that happened. Though they didn't have much time to complain before they went to war."

"Yes of course…" Daniel sighed. "This silly war… Over what? Some lost honor and some people seeing an opportunity?"

"It is rather unfortunate."

Daniel nodded, retrieving the DNA analyzer from his office. The Ambassador held out her hand. Daniel swore he saw her smirk for a second.

The DNA analyzer beeped a few times before flashing red. Instantly the Ambassador's facade fell. "No! We tested this! The spell is perfect!" She tried to draw a weapon, but years of working on SG-1 had given Daniel some combat experience. His zat was out before she even got her hand on whatever she had. She fell to the ground.

Then she pooled in a bright green light, revealing a strange four-legged bug like creature, moaning.

Daniel blinked. "So… _Not_ a Romulan. A _Changeling._ Interesting…"

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

Layton frowned at the Changeling. "What is your name?"

"Drone Buzz 4334!" Buzz said, cowering. She whimpered. "Please don't hurt me!"

"You know for a spy she's rather… pathetic." Vala noted.

Cam shrugged. "I think they didn't expect to get caught. After all, she is right - her spell perfectly matches the DNA of whoever she copied."

"Which is concerning for more than one reason." Daniel muttered.

Layton nodded. "Not only do we have no real way to detect them - but who she replaced was _not_ a Vulcan. Which means there _was_ a Romulan spy."

"I don't know anything!" Buzz said. "I was just here to watch things and eventually go back to the Vulcans! I swear!"

Cam chuckled. "I think you wouldn't have lasted long with them… They would see your emotional breaks a lot more than us."

"I… I…"

Layton spoke back up. "Tell us, Buzz, what did you do with the person you replaced?"

"Er…"

"What happened Buzz?"

"Well… we sent her back to Queen Chrysalis for… more extreme questioning."

Daniel stood up. "Get Equis on the line. We need to deal with this quickly."

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

"Allright team!" Twilight said. "We've got a very important mission for all of you to undertake! You're being sent to infiltrate the Hive!"

The ponies in the room gasped.

"Now calm down - we're not sending you in like this. You're going in prepared. Starlight?"

Starlight walked up to the podium and lit her horn. A powerful surge of magic surrounded her, and seconds later she transformed herself into a Changeling. She hovered above the ground, proving that even the wings were part of the spell. She spoke in the strange buzzing voice of the Changelings. "The spell only lasts a few hours, but that's all we should need. We need to get in, find out where they're holding the Romulan, and get out."

The ponies nodded and a few scribbled notes. One raised a hoof. "Do we know anything about the Hive itself?"

Twilight smiled. "I'm glad you asked that question. We have a guest speaker today, one of Equestria's own resident Changelings - Kevin!"

Kevin groaned a bit before walking up. "Hey." He said.

The ponies looked on expectantly.

"So, guess I need to tell you about the Hive then huh? Well first off it's disgusting. Green slime everywhere. Lots of caged up beings stuck in green slime while until we decide we need to siphon them of their affection. It's sick.

Now, not getting called out in the Hive is easy: act mindless. Those who don't act mindless are generally put on spy missions due to their greater intelligence. The rest are just workers to craft the hive into a more efficient shape and see to Chrysalis' every need. _Every_ need." He sighed.

"Besides acting mindless, you'll also need to protect your minds somehow. Chrysalis has a minor mental connection to every Changeling in the Hive. She'll be able to sense if you have higher thought, and a little focus will reveal that you are not actually a Changeling. Don't look curious. Don't look interested. Don't look scared."

He frowned. "I'm not coming with you. I'm never going back to that place. I got my freedom. I never want to feel her in my mind again."

"Are any of the other Changelings willing to help us?"

Starlight spoke up. "A few would actually - but they're all on other missions which we can't tell you about. Sorry."

"Why are we doing this? We aren't part of the war-"

Twilight frowned, shutting the questioner up. "We are their friends. And it is possible that if we can recover this Romulan, we can end the war. Get everyone to realize that there are Romulans involved, and that the war is exactly what they want."

Starlight nodded. "Everyone, we head out tomorrow. Prepare yourselves."

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

"Teams, we now begin radio silence. Infiltrate, find what you can. But if you suspect you are in danger, get out of there. Remember to use your teleportation spells at the first sign of your cover being blown. We cannot afford to be captured." Starlight let out a breath. "I wish you all luck." She put away the Appletech radio, turning to her team.

"Remember everypony, _stealth._ "

Rainbow Dash nodded. "Gotcha. Be mindless. You can count on me Starlight!"

The team's zebra shook his head. "I question the wisdom of bringing her along-"

"She's the Element of Loyalty Ubada." Starlight countered. "She can be depended on."

Rainbow dash nodded vigorously.

The fourth member of the team, a crystal earth pony by the name of Ultraviolet, smiled. "We're the last ones to be transformed Starlight- shouldn't you get on that?"

"Right." Starlight said, lighting up her horn. Soon, unicorn, pegasus, crystal unicorn, and zebra all looked like four identical changelings.

"Remember to stay on the ground for most of the op. We don't want to draw attention by unusual behavior. That means you Rainbow Dash."

"Right."

"Now, follow my lead. Don't say anything. If I need to give an order, you will hear it mentally. Do not respond." She looked over the hill at their target. The hive. The horrendous black structure stood in the middle of a dense black climate, equally dead looking and humid. Strange green glows emanated from the towering structure. Starlight let out a breath. "Well, let's move in. The other teams should already be in. Let's go."

The four non-Changelings trotted towards the hive in a perfect line, faces blank. Other changelings fell in formation around them, returning to the hive. It was all very methodical, organized, and emotionless.

There were a few Changelings who seemed to act autonomously, without falling into ranks, and they talked amongst themselves while watching the rest of the drones.

"You know, sometimes I wonder why the rest of 'em don't just get up and _do_ something."

"Something about unequal intelligence or whatever." The other Changeling shrugged.

"But I wonder… if you poked and prodded them, could you get them to _do_ anything?"

"People have tried Exo-" The Changeling facehooved as Exo fluttered down into the ranks.

"Hey! You there!" He said, pointing at a random Changeling. There was no response. "Listen to me drone! I'm going to get a response out of you!"

Nothing. The drone kept walking. This only got him slapped.

"Exo, give it up, there's nothing going to happen-"

Exo wasn't about to give up though. He leapt onto the drone, knocking him over. "Will THIS get a response?"

It did. The drone panicked and lit up with a flash of light. Instantly, it and four other drones were gone in a puff of magic.

Starlight would have paled if her form allowed her to. _Crap…_

"Uh…. Bursk?"

"Yeah Exo?"

"We can't do that kind of magic can we?"

"No Exo. We can't. Not unless we're the Queen. Which we aren't."

"Think we should say something?"

"Probably-"

"MAGGOTS!" Another Changeling yelled, dropping from the sky. "DO YOU TWO NOT UNDERSTAND THE GRAVITY OF THE SITUATION?"

The two Changelings backed away. "No-"

"WE ARE BEING INFILTRATED."

"But didn't they just teleport away-"

"THAT DOESN'T MEAN THERE AREN'T MORE. GO GATHER EVERYONE. WE ARE GOING TO ROOT THEM OUT BEFORE THE QUEEN FINDS OUT." He huffed. "GET GOING MAGGOTS!"

The drones and Starlight's team kept moving in.

 _Keep going_ she told her team mentally. _We still have a chance here. Stay low._

Another Changeling flew up into the sky and looked at all the mindless marching drones. Starlight felt her presence cross their minds. Hopefully the mental spell worked…

The Changeling grunted, before taking off to investigate another area of the hive.

Starlight wanted to sigh, but restrained herself. She mentally signaled the others that everything was working, and they crept into the Hive. Which was even more disgusting on the inside. Pods were hanging form the ceiling, filled with ponies and other unusual creatures.

None of the pods seemed to have a humanoid at all, besides the one Minotaur she saw. So the Romulan obviously wasn't here. She made a minor deviation in the course, heading down a different hallway few Changelings were entering. They made sure to look everywhere they could as inconspicuously as possible. Starlight sensed Ultraviolet cast her high-resolution scrying spell whenever she thought it was safe. She gave no indication that she ever found anything.

"Don't tell the queen anything. We don't want her involved. She'd tear us apart if she knew we let them in here… Just go over all the drones. Prod them a few times."

Starlight kept walking, and was in fact subject to a few prods. Her team managed not to react. However, far away she sensed another teleportation activate followed by repeated Changeling swears.

"There could be more." Starlight heard. But they kept moving, walking into every cranny they could.

Then Starlight felt a faint magical ping from Ultraviolet. She'd found something. She stamped her hoof on the ground. The target was below them.

Good… Good…

They made their way down, going through a few more searches, but passing inspections. They continued down until they were so far down beneath the ground that Starlight realized she couldn't teleport out in one step safely. It would need to take a two-step process.

No matter - she was able to do it quickly.

They descended an came upon a room filled with various pods, a different deeper green than the others. Inside were rare creatures Starlight had never seen before, though a few had existed in books of legend.

This would be Chrysalis' special containment area…

Ultraviolet pinged again, and Starlight saw her. The Romulan, suspended in a pod.

All they had to do was-

"AHA! I KNEW YOU WERE AFTER SOMETHING!" A changeling, presumably the same yelling one as before, screamed from behind them. "SURRENDER PATHETIC PONIES! AND DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT FIGHTING - YOU DON'T WANT CHRYSALIS HERE EITHER-"

 **"Oh but little Compound… I've been here the whole time."**

Slowly, a random changeling drone transformed into a the towering form of Queen Chrysalis. Her horn lit up in a disgusting green color. Starlight tried to teleport away, but the spell in question was a spacial lock - they weren't going anywhere.

"Q-Q-Q-QUEEEN-"

 **"Shut up Compound. You will be forced to work the chutes later for your insolence."** She turned to Starlight, grinning. **"Did you really think a mental imitation spell could fool ME? You really are foolish, pony. Now… I wonder which one you are?"**

Chrysalis lit her horn, trying to dispel the disguise. Starlight fought back with her own magic, able to focus against this spell. Magical energy began to spark around the room, catching a few nearby things on fire.

Chrysalis turned off her horn. She seemed mildly impressed. **"It seems rumors of your magical prowess were not exaggerated… Starlight Glimmer."** At Starlight's surprised face, Chrysalis laughed. **"The only magic users who can fight me to a standstill are dead, alicorns, or** ** _you."_**

Starlight groaned, dropping the illusion. She glared at Chrysalis. "What do you want?"

 **"I should be asking you, but I already know. You want this Vulcan back."** She gestured at the Romulan in the pod. **"And I am wondering why you want her so badly…"**

Starlight said nothing.

Chrysalis' horn lit up, her eyes flashing green. Starlight knew a mind reading spell when she saw one, and she put up a barrier.

It was, unfortunately, not enough to cover all four of their minds. Ubada moaned and fell over.

 **"Ah…** ** _not_** **a Vulcan…"** She grinned. **"MOST interesting…"**

Rainbow Dash charged Chrysalis down, ploughing into a wall. "You're going down cheese-legs! We're taking her and getting ou-"

Chrysalis lit her horn, imprisoning Rainbow Dash in a cube made of green gel. She laughed.

 **"Nice try Miss Dash - but even with your prowess I am** ** _Queen Chrysalis._** **You aren't going to be able to take care of me that easily. Now…"** She laughed once more. **"Now be some good little ponies and stay in these gel pods… I'll talk to you in a minute…"** She turned to glare at Starlight. **"Actually… you might be able to get out. You will accompany me."**

Starlight tensed. That didn't sound good.

Chrysalis lit her horn, disguising Starlight as a Changeling again. Then the Queen lifted the Romulan out of the pod, grinning. She waved for Starlight to follow her as they went down a nearby hallway and into an empty room. Chrysalis sealed the entrance and laid the Romulan at the far side of the room. She created a chair and a table for her, laying her unconscious form into a sitting position. Then she waited.

Starlight wasn't exactly sure what she was doing…

Eventually, the Romulan came to, blinking. Face stern, she sat up straight and stared right at Chrysalis. "Why have you awakened me?"

 **"I have come across some new information and believe you could be of some use after all."**

"You already placed your agent in place of me. I see no benefit to this, unless they discovered your spy and are demanding you return me."

Chrysalis laughed. **"I would not return you to them even** ** _if_** **they asked! For my little humanoid, you are more than just a Vulcan ambassador…"** She leaned in close. **"You may have blocked my influence on your mind with your discipline, but due to some genetic experimentation we have determined that you are not Vulcan after all… Romulan."**

There was no visible change in the Romulan's expression. She knew there was no point in denying anything. "And how does that revelation change anything?"

 **"I see you need a bit of a refresher. We can be useful to each other."** She smirked. **"Through my information networks I am aware you are keeping close tabs on the happenings in this area of the Galaxy."**

"That is indeed true."

 **"Then we presumably have the same goals. To become great in an are of the Galaxy plagued by the insolent Tau'ri."**

"Our goals are indeed similar. What are you suggesting we do?"

 **"I send you back to the Romulans and you tell them all about me. Then we formulate a plan to destabilize the Tau'ri, allowing ourselves to become the dominant creatures. I can tell you that Changelings are very useful."**

"Unfortunately there will be no need for that. We have already set the plan into motion. The Klingons have been provoked with false information and secret attacks have been pinned on the Tau'ri. Though perhaps you could serve as more reliable spies…"

Starlight winced as Chrysalis' grin contorted to a truly evil level. **"This is wonderful. What was your name again?"**

"Tere'mir of the Romulans. Perhaps this will be the start of a further partnership-"

Chrysalis laughed. **"Oh really? You think I** ** _really_** **wanted to partner with the** ** _losing_** **side? You really** ** _are_** **an idiot aren't you?"** She chortled. **"You will not win here - you may destabilize the Tau'ri but there are other forces that will take revenge on you."** She grinned. **"I just want to make sure** ** _I_** **make it through this little game you've set up."**

Tere'mir glared. Starlight grinned when she realized what Chrysalis was doing.

Chrysalis took out a strange magical orb. **"This is a record orb. Everything you and I have said for the last few minutes has just been recorded. And broadcast to one of my agents who will prepare a broadcast through the stargate next time it opens, alerting the Tau'ri, allies, and everyone else of what you're truly doing."** Then she smirked. **"And then all of them will** ** _owe_** **me. I got the information out of you, they will no longer just be able to dismiss me. Their people will remember the aid I offered them. Of course, this last bit shall not be on the recording. Heh."** She encased the Romulan in goo again. **"You will not be getting her, Starlight, But you and all your agents I have captured will be released. I need to keep up appearances after all."**

Starlight blinked. "Why are you letting me see all this? Your plans?"

 **"Simply because you would know this was what I was doing anyway. Now go before I get hungry."**

"Ah…"

Starlight got everyone out of there as fast as she could.

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]][][][][][][][][]

The broadcast of Chrysalis' message was _instant._ The Andorians were _furious_ dropping out of the war instantly to go hunt for Romulans. They didn't apologize - but they stopped attacking in favor of sending ships out to find the pointy-eared aliens.

With the admission of Romulans being the ones to start the magical attacks, the Jaffa officially joined the war on the side of the Tau'ri, as did the Tellarites. The Vulcans chose to remain neutral, but gave the Tau'ri their support anyway.

The Jaffa used the war to mobilize a great force, and head directly for the Lucian Alliance….

They were getting slaughtered by the thousand.

The current head of the Lucians, a man by the name of Herald, had only held the position for a day. The Leaders kept being assassinated and replaced, almost daily as the Jaffa pushed through their space.

Herald felt the alliance falling apart at the seams. The Jaffa were just too numerous, and obviously planned to collapse the Lucians entirely. It didn't help that the Tau'ri and Reform were helping.

He would have considered surrender, if the last leader who had considered that hadn't been beheaded seconds after announcing the idea.

Essentially, the Lucians were dying because they were just too stubborn and violent. If a leader offered surrender, the rest of the Alliance would just keep on fighting anyway.

Thus, they were doomed. Herald sighed.

There was nothing he could do as dozens of Jaffa Ha'taks dropped out of hyperspace.

On that day forward, the Lucian Alliance never had an official leader ever again. What remained often fought wars with itself, and all the territory was split between the various people involved in the war. The Jaffa got the most, naturally.

The Lucian Alliance had fallen.

The Klingons were the only ones still fighting, and eventually the Enterprise managed to disable a Klingon craft and get them to sit and _talk._ With a _lot_ of tying up and force.

O'Neill literally shoved their face into the screen of the Romulan relaying the message.

"False information? PAH! You kept our brother in a hospital bed and kept reviving him after he died! Endlessly! You kept killing and bringing him back, destroying the warrior within him"

"LISTEN TO ME!" O'Neill roared. "WE TRIED TO SAVE HIM BUT COULDN'T. HE WAS INJURED AND DIED HOURS LATER. DO YOU WANT TO SEE THE HOSPITAL SURVEILLANCE VIDEO?"

"YES I WOULD!"

It took four tries before the Klingon finally listened. But listen he did, and he was sent back to the Empire to inform them.

The Klingons never officially ended the war - but they stopped sending fleets. However, this didn't stop occasional skirmishes. They still viewed the Tau'ri and allies as a dishonorable race.

No other Romulan spies were found. They evidentially knew to get the heck out of dodge as soon as the video went out.

The Klingon war was over…

And a new age was beginning…

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

"People of the Galaxy! We have been made aware of an enemy that lurks in the shadows, wishing us to fight each other and destabilize the power we have if we work together! Together, we are strong and are a threat to their plans! Apart, it is exactly what they want! I ask all of you, today, let us never drift apart again! Let us all stand strong! Let us stand together! Let's not give the Romulans what they want!" Brae'tac raised a fist, and many present cheered. Including the Andorians.

Daniel Jackson took the podium next. "People of the Galaxy- we should stand together for more than just a need to survive and defeat our enemies. We should stand together so we may learn more, so we may advance, so we may become better than we were before. None of us are perfect - we can learn form each other. We can construct great things together rather than destroy them in war. My hope is that this Coalition lasts for centuries, and that we will be forever allies in peace." He nodded.

Cheers erupted from the others, those who preferred peace.

"Let the seven of us stand strong against the tides of violence. We will be a force for good in the Galaxy! We can become the Second Great Alliance that will go down in Galactic History forever!"

Cheers. Gloroius cheers.

That day, the Coalition was formed. A loose set of treaties that made seven galactic nations ally together. It prevented war from occurring between them, and all members of each nation were allowed to enter any nation they wished. Borders were open.

Secondarily, they would focus their efforts to find the Romulans, wherever they were, and make sure the Vulcan offshoots could do nothing to destabilize them anymore.

The seven stood together - Tau'ri, Jaffa, Reform, Vulcan, Tellarite, Andorian, and Equi.

They believed they were ready to face anything.

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

"They have gained stability."

"Your critical failure will result in your execution."

"I am aware of this. I shall not be here in the morning when they come looking for me. You are to claim I overpowered you and ran."

"Of course."

"This is not the end of our plans. The Romulan Star Empire still needs me - even if they think they do not. Now hold still, I need to knock you out."

"Whenever-" THWACK.

[][][][][][][][][][][][][]

 ** _WARP THEATRE_**

Yerskoi was one of the younger Ori, and his mentality matched his immaturity. He was having quite a lot of fun in the Offensive against the Necrons - stupid tin cans thinking they could possibly threaten the Ori? Fools!

He _giggled_ as he destroyed ship after ship, every swath increasing the faith of his servants, and increasing his power.

The Necrons could do nothing to him. He saw them try to organize themselves in the god-killing circle a few times, but he was aware enough to prevent that weapon from _ever_ going off. He laughed as they desperately tried to fire the attack in an incomplete pattern, only managing to warp reality a little.

Then he saw something new come into play. There was a regular Necron ship with a strange glowing nose-tip, an eerie green light drawing his attention. He frowned. What exactly was that?

The cone flashed brightly, a ring of energy swirling around it before a baker's dozen of neon green orbs appeared, and each one shot beams of thick green light right at him.

He laughed, not feeling a thing. What were they trying-

Then he realized.

 _He wasn't feeling anything at all._

That was the last thing Yerskoi ever thought as he just failed to exist.

"Weapon was a success." A Necron said. "Casualties?"

"Three hundred units have just vanished."

"Acceptable loss. Equip more ships with the Nevermore Spires."

"It shall be done."

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

A purple cloaked figure stood over a crystal ball swirling with the energies of the Warp. The Chaos Sorcerer grinned as he looked in on a conversation…

"Iris?" The Eldar Farseer's voice could be heard through the ball. "What is it you want, Ori?"

"I think it is time for us to discuss the Warp."

The Eldar Farseer huffed. "It's a bane of our existence…"

"What exactly is it though?" The female Ori asked. "It's a mystery even to us - we know it's history. It was created back in the ancient wars. A literal manifestation of the worst sides of souls. I hear you blame the Necrons for it."

"They do shoulder most of the blame."

The Chaos Sorcerer chuckled at this remark.

Iris nodded. "Indeed… but over time, the Chaos Gods were created. Khorne, Nurgle…. Tzeentch… and Slaanesh. They gave a voice to the Warp - a strange sense of Order to Chaos."

"They are nothing more than manifestations of our desires and souls…"

Iris shook her head. "That may be what they were at first, but I don't think so anymore." She walked around. "They have their own thoughts and desires now. Messages come from them to their followers. They corrupt those they can with their own energies. They have become their own race."

The Eldar Farseer pondered this. "But how does that change anything? They still feed off us. Even if they have their own thoughts and desires now, how does that help either of us defeat them?"

"It means they can be talked to." Iris pointed out. "If a being close to their level were to enter the Eye, maybe discussion could occur."

"You do not think you are on their level do you?" He huffed, the notion was absurd.

"No. The rest will likely not admit it, but I know when I am outclassed. But we are on the level of their high Daemons - perhaps we could get them to pay attention. To understand."

The Chaos Sorcerer laughed.

"Khorne doesn't talk, Nurgle will do whatever he wants to you regardless of your wishes, and Slaanesh is just in it for the pleasure." Then the Eldar Farseer looked down. "And we suspect that Tzeentch does understand - and uses that to accelerate our downfall."

"Perhaps he could be convinced otherwise." Iris said, a twinkle in her eyes.

"One would have to be a truly advanced diplomat to even get a word in around him - and be able to handle his presence."

"We could do it. Possibly…" Iris frowned.

The Eldar Ferseer waved his hand. "The ideas of you Ori are absurd. There is no defeating Chaos, only surviving."

"Chaos does not exist in other areas of the galaxy."

The Eldar Farseer's eyes widened. The Chaos Sorcerer's did as well.

"We have been to the galactic south and west - both areas have peoples who live without the warp. While the west is rather… dark…. the south has peoples who are autonomous and have a great civilization. They are even semi-pacifist, and yet are in a position of high power in their sector." She frowned, saying nothing else.

"Are you suggesting leaving?"

"Possibly." Iris said. "Though we cannot - it is only because of the Warp that we can exist here without… consequences."

The Eldar Farseer frowned. "Why are you telling me all this?"

Iris was silent for a moment. "Perhaps I think there is another way than mad subjugation…" And with that, she vanished.

The Chaos Farseer's face was contorted in thought.

He knew he wasn't told everything - but this was new information. Very new information…

Well, the Farseer couldn't act on it anyway - the Eldar would really grill him on exactly how he got the information. And everyone who had looked far beyond had always come up with very unreliable visions before. There was no way, so they weren't leaving.

Though that may be just because they weren't desperate enough yet.

The Chaos Sorcerer grinned. It didn't matter. It would happen, and happen soon…

"SOON…"

[][]][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

"Why are we not brutalizing the Necrons?" Orilek yelled.

Orin glared. "Their weapons have gotten more effective Orilek! Hold your tongue!"

Vetho snickered. "Ah, great and powerful Orilek - chastised. Ahaahahaha - rich."

Orilek shot out with his power, only to find that Vetho wasn't there. "And he's a bad shot too! Oh yes… perhaps it's time he learned about death-"

 **"BOTH OF YOU SHUT YOUR TRAPS. THIS IS NOT A TIME TO SQUABBLE AMONGST OURSELVES."** Orin yelled, his much-larger energy signature causing the rest of the Ori to flinch.

"One day, old man, you will no longer be able to keep us down." Orilek growled. "I will kill him one day."

"That day is not today, Orilek. And don't you get any ideas either Vetho. We need to work together. The Necron weapons have improved, and we can no longer attack them directly with any measure of safety."

Trillesk spoke up. "Perhaps we can invent something ourselves? A shield of sorts?"

"We cannot give them time to develop more on their own." Orin pointed out. "They have us outnumbered in minds - they are a machine race and can develop much faster than we ever could."

Iris frowned. "…is that a flaw in our system?"

"It may be." Orin said. "But if we were to increase too much in number, our power would lower, and it would be too high of a cost. And we cannot risk educating our followers in higher dimensional theory."

Quir, the oldest of the Ori, spoke up. "Perhaps… perhaps we can get someone else to do our fighting for us?"

"We are already loosing too many followers Quir…" Orilek groaned.

"I'm not saying we use our followers. I say we manipulate another to do what we wish. Find a rather unintelligent race, influence their minds directly, and send them to war… And I know just the race to use."

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

The Tau discovered something amazing when they withdrew some of the forces going up against the Imperium.

The Imperium was completely willing to ignore them for the time being since there were bigger fish to deal with.

They were free to explore the galactic south…

So the blue-skinned Tau were setting up an exploration and colonization fleet with all members of the Empire, preparing for a way out of the constant war. Hoping that they would find a place to hide from the horrors of the wars. A place where they could further the Greater Good without all this unfortunate violence and warfare.

The Eldar were aware of the Tau's force buildup - it took a while for them to figure out what the blue skins were doing but it quickly became obvious.

Leaving… who would leave? There was nothing out there aside from a few random scattered human worlds and then no life whatsoever. Even experimentations with the stargates had revealed nothing further down that way…

What were they hoping to accomplish?

 ** _[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]_**

The Necrons had a sizable force. They had finally heard of some Ori activity after months of nothing. They were obviously forming some counter-strategy to the Nevermore Spires.

Which was why this fleet had a hundred of them affixed.

Having entire planets that could be devoted to manufacturing helped a lot when trying to mass produce a highly-expensive object.

Any Ori would not survive the encounter - they would be vaporized into Nevermore. Granted, so would a few Necron ships, but the cost was acceptable.

They approached the area the Ori had been reported.

They found something very different instead.

"This does not compute… They do not get this big…"

"A fleet this size has never been observed! A fleet _half_ this size has never been observed!"

"It is likely that the Ori manipulated their wills… They are not very intelligent. They could be manipulated easily by beings of their caliber."

"Retreat seems like the best course of option."

"Retreat is impossible to perform safely with this many of them."

"Save what we can."

"Agreed."

The Necrons tried to run…

…but the power of the largest WAAAAAAGH ever to exist overran them.

From a distance, Quir smirked. Sometimes, big, loud, and numerous could be _very_ helpful - even if they didn't really understand how to worship, they still had a use.

 _WAAAAAAAAAAGH!_

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

Some Eldar observed as the city below them was ravaged by Tyranids.

"This is deeply concerning." One said.

"They have gained the power of the Ori."

A scream was heard from below before being cut short by a gushing noise.

"They are overrunning us and we are not able to defend against them. It takes an astounding amount of energy to kill just one of them."

"Power we do not have."

They fell slilent as a Tyranid tried to get into their location, but hit the energy barrier. It hissed.

"They are going to get in eventually. Within the hour, most likely."

"Yes… it is a shame."

"At least the lost ones are suffering the same fate."

"You know they take pleasure from pain."

"But event they do not want to die. Usually."

More bugs crawled, trying to get into the forcefield, growling and slashing.

"Dissapointing."

"We cannot do everything."

"Maybe the Tau have a good idea…"

"They will die from nothingness first."

"There is no hope."

Then a Prior Tyranid found them.

They had no time to say anything else.


	7. T-MINUS 245 YEARS

_**T-MINUS 245 YEARS**_

 _ **(ORBSyndicate, Nano Soldier 2016)**_

 _ **EARTH THEATRE**_

A certain Serrakin trader was ecstatic. With this new coalition, trade had boomed! It was a dream come true! Just a few years ago he was struggling to get by, competition between the worlds of the Hebridans was just too strict… He'd been struggling to get by.

Then the trade opened to Earth and the Tau'ri worlds, finally a good market he could sink his feet into. But the Lucians had tainted that, and it became a dangerous place to work…

But now, the Lucians were gone, and the market was open to all the nearby powers! Suddenly, hundreds of new goods were available for trade, and he, Simol, would be there to rake in profits because of it! The Reform colonies needed supplies, and the rest of the cosmos needed the special materials their Priors could generate. The Tau'ri needed more personnel, and the Equi needed more technologies. The Vulcans wanted philosophy, and the Equi wanted companions. It was just a matter of seeing who wanted what and finding who had it…

He was becoming a very rich man who got around a lot. He was able to see the Andorian government undergo the beginnings of reform: evidentially the war had gotten the people sick of their government's militaristic tendencies. He got to be there personally when the Tellarites created the interstellar court system. He got to hear a _loot_ of philosophy when the Vulcans, Tellarites, and Equi got together. He also got to see a lot of magic used in amazing ways, and enchanted items became the most valuable items he carried.

But right now, none of that mattered. He was about to make the deal of his career.

"Do you have the product?" An Equi Unicorn asked.

"Indeed I do…" Simol grinned, placing a blueish crystal chip on the table. "One Asgard processing chip. Yours for the small price of a billion credits. Or equivalent exchange."

The Unicorn nodded, using her magic to pull out a strange magical orb. "This is one of Appletech's experimental devices,

a spell orb. Activate it by touching it with telekinesis or three thousand volts of electricity. It will cast a disguise spell, giving whoever is closest to it the appearance of whatever they want for as long as they want."

"While interesting, it doesn't seem to be as-"

"You can have ten." The Unicorn said.

Simol knew when not to ask questions. "Deal." He said, taking the ten orbs and giving the chip to her. "It was a pleasure doing business with you."

"Of course."

As the two prepared to leave, the unicorn's eyes widened in fear. "Oh no-"

"OH YES!" The door was smashed down, revealing a griffon standing next to a human soldier. The griffon grinned. "YOU'VE JUST BEEN BUSTED!"

The unicorn dropped her disguise instantly, turning into the Changeling she was and trying to fly away through the other door. Unfortunately, there was an Andorian right there, pointing a rather large gun at her.

The Changeling cowered. "No… no…" Her horn lit on fire, and she screamed in pain, collapsing on the ground. Then she blinked, all the soul gone from her eyes.

There were no responses form her after that.

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

"That's… Barbaric!" Layton gasped.

Lyra nodded. "Chrysalis wanted no chance of her operative being questioned."

"But… removing their higher function? Who would do such a thing?"

"Queen swiss cheese." O'Neill remarked. "I don't suppose she's making a comment on the incident?"

"She claims the operative was obviously not part of her hive." Lyra rolled her eyes. "No-one believes her, of course, but that doesn't change anything."

Layton frowned. "Does she have any support from the neutral sides on Equis?"

"I doubt it - the Minotaurs have joined us, and the Centaurs and Gargoyles have made it very clear they don't trust any of us."

O'Neill groaned. "So the operation has failed. Great. No dirt on miss swiss cheese. No information from her agent-"

"We did get a lot of shady contacts from the trader-"

"Yes, but we could have found that easily." He grumbled. "Why can't it be as simple as shooting her…"

"Without a queen the Changelings would likely go on a rampage. Or starve."

O'Neill grunted. "Anything on the Romulans?"

Carter spoke up this time. "No. The other chips we seeded onto the market revealed no Romulans. And there's been a lot less evidence of them spying on us. It's as if they've decided it isn't worth the risk to find us. And the Jaffa-Andorian task force hasn't found evidence of them either, despite their extreme efforts."

O'Neill grunted. "We need to be sneaky to catch these guys… Really sneaky…"

Lyra shrugged. "I hear the Vulcans are working on something hush-hush… Possibly to find their brethren."

Layton narrowed his eyes. "Where'd you hear that?"

"None of your-"

"Agent Mulder?"

Lyra's eyes twitched. "…Maybe?"

Layton chuckled. "Well, at least his mind is open. I'll give him that. He does jump to conclusions a lot though. A lot like you in fact."

Lyra rolled her eyes, and decided now was the time to take her leave.

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

"Welcome to the Coalition Network, I'm your host, David."

"And I'm your other host, Stormglow."

"Welcome to the Nightly News." David smiled at Stormglow, the pegasus grinning back.

"First off, Sweetie Belle has begun her Earth tour, her first show being completely sold out. It was an amazing hit and her songs have become some of the most bought on the Net."

David went next. "Speaking of the Net, Appletech is working with Vulcan Science Labs and the Tau'ri military to construct an expansive internet that will connect all worlds together, based off technology gleaned from the stargates. It is expected that within a few years all Internets on all planets will be communicating with each other flawlessly."

"A great success story. However, we do have bad news. While the Klingon-Tau'ri war has ended, there have been reports of scattered skirmishes on the Tellarite borders. While the fights are occurring much less frequently, loss of life is still occurring."

"The Reform have recently decided to begin colonizing the galaxy proper, slowly creating a small section of space around the supergate that they hope to quickly turn into a successful expansion of their confined space."

"And with their expansion comes more Priors ready to help root out the Wizard Terrorists. With help from the unicorns and another unexpected ally, they have managed to almost completely end the Wizarding World threat, and they hope for a new era of peace."

"Speaking of the unexpected allies, superheroes have begun to become more and more common. It appears that those gifted with unique abilities have taken it upon themselves to make the Earth - and the cosmos - a better place."

"This has been the Nightly News. Goodnight!"

Mulder shut off the television, smirking. "Things are looking up Scully!"

Scully rolled her eyes. "Of course they are Mulder-"

"Which means that something's about to go wrong!"

"Mulder don't be ridiculous-"

Then their apartment door fell down, revealing one of those superheroes. He was obviously not happy in his yellow suit.

Mulder blinked. "…Wolverine?"

"Yes." Wolverine muttered. "And you are going to answer some questions."

"About what?"

"About how you knew people like us existed for a long time."

Mulder shrugged. "Well yes I had encountered several of individuals with unusual powers… some had them naturally, some were experimented on. Your point?"

Wolverine glared. "I want to know about those who were experimented on. I want to know where. I want to know why."

Mulder sighed. "Where is impossible, every time I found a facility it was always cleaned up or I didn't actually know where it was. As for the why… there were several reasons from what I can recall. Some just wanted to see what would happen. Others wanted armies. Others had something to do with aliens that looked suspiciously like the Asgard…"

Wolverine growled. "I want to know who did all this-"

Mulder shrugged. "Well there's Smokey… But I never know where he is unless he wants me to know. And I get the feeling he's not directly involved in most of those experiments."

Wolverine punched his claws into a wall. "They need… They need justice. They need to pay for what they've done."

Mulder sighed. "I'm sorry, but they hide well. I do not know where they are. But I will tell you that they are not all the same people. There are _many_ shadow organizations Wolverine. Stopping one will not stop them all.

Wolverine wordlessly walked away.

Scully frowned. "One of these days one of these 'heroes' are going to do something stupid that sets the world against them."

Mulder frowned, and nodded.

[][][][][][][][][][]

Chrysalis was mad. Furious even.

She had given information to everyone that stopped the Klingon-Tau'ri war! They should be on their hands and knees thanking her! Instead? What do they offer?

"If you end aggressions and cut down your level of espionage, we will allow you into the Coalition and find a way to feed your hive without the need for stealing."

 **"** **PAH"** She growled. **"This is the way it SHOULD be! Changelings are destined to steal and control! There should be no "accommodations" to how we are designed!"** She kicked a hole in the wall of the Hive.

They weren't offering her anything. They hadn't declared any sort of war or op on her, but she was being left out of the rest of the cosmos. The Equi Alliance was all the rest of the cosmos cared about, apparently. And she couldn't ally with the Centaurs… they didn't like her either.

She was alone, and small in the great expanse of space. And she _hated_ feeling small. She was important! SHE WAS THE _QUEEN._

But she couldn't think of anything to do… She had no ships, she had to sneak onto others. And she was _not_ stooping to anyone who suggested the Changelings change their ways. Preposterous!

She needed to do something more…

But she had no idea what to do…

She would just have to extend her spy network… Something had to come up eventually…

[][][][][][][][][][][]

On the other side of the galaxy, Atlantis returned.

John Shepard stood on the bridge, looking at the stars of the so dubbed Pegasus Sector. Shepard had no idea why.

With the Klingon war over… it was time to begin the end of the Wraith.

It was time to initiate Operation Spirit Seal.

The solution would be final, and at long last the race would no longer be a horrendous pestilence on the Galaxy.

He had mixed feelings about it frankly, but it had to be done.

He had no idea that there was a problem that came with them.

A cloaked Romulan ship sped away, taking advantage of the fact that unlike the human-built ships, Atlantis was not recalibrated to detect cloaks.

It was on the loose in the Pegasus Sector.

 _ **WARP THEATRE**_

The Tau Ethereals looked at the reports of the galactic south.

While a few worlds worth colonizing had been found, most had been discovered dead. Lifeless. There was evidentially nothing outside their little corner of the Galaxy that was worth settling. At least, not within close range.

They were considering calling off the expansion. They had gathered a grand total of four planets from this endeavor, and that was nowhere near enough. It was looking like their endeavor had failed…

"URGENT REPORT!" an aide yelled into the meeting room, causing the Ethereals to look up.

"They found something. Something big…"

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

The Necrons were not happy.

"Ork forces moving in at all angles. Showing tactical prowess unheard of for their kind."

"Ori manipulations 99% probability. Locate the ascended."

"No aeon energy detected. The effect must be lingering."

The gigantic Ork fleet of haphazard junky ships collided with the much smaller, but more advanced, Necron fleet.

"Weapons firing. Dozens of targets eliminated."

"10% Of our forces have been destroyed, and the rate of destruction is increasing. We cannot win this engagement."

"Retreat."

"Delay that order - another wing of Ork ships has appeared behind us. We are pinned."

"Send a message back to the commanders. We have failed."

The Necron fleet exploded.

A Necron paused the recording and looked at the other Necrons at the table. "We cannot win this fight." He said simply.

The other Necrons, each representing a different faction, went into an uproar.

"We will develop!"

"We will find a way!"

"We will clear the galaxy of these Ori!"

"We will be victorious, despite what you say Vorl."

Vorl shook his head. "With our current tactics our losses are too high. Our weapons cannot be used if they never show their faces. We cannot fight the entire Ork race when they are given advanced tactics."

"What are you suggesting?"

"A new strategy." He brought up the designs for the Nevermore Spires. "The technology is advanced - and we cannot build enough. However, there are others who can."

The other Necrons didn't like where this was going."Vorl…"

"The technology can be given without any danger to us - we are immune to the spires brunt force. The loss of our units cannot be turned against us - any we give this to will have to suffer the drawback as well. But they will build more, and be able to actively resist the Ori."

A Necron stood up. "We all know that the only races capable of doing such a thing are the Eldar and Dark Eldar. Why would we give this to _them_ of all people?"

"Simple because we wish to survive. We are the largest Necron alliance - we have contacts within their domains. We can provide the blueprints to them, and not to the Ori or Chaos. They will make their own variations of the spires, and fight back against the Ori, making our job a lot easier. The Orks cannot be in three places at once - even they do not have that large of numbers."

The Necrons obviously did't like this idea, but Vorl was making good points.

"And if nothing else, this won't backfire on us. The Nevermore spires cannot be fired at us - so if they don't help us at least they won't hinder us. There is no negative side to this plan, unless anyone wishes to point one out."

"We're dealing with the Eldar. We should never do that."

"We'd have to deal with them eventually." Vorl noted.

There were no more arguments after that.

"Then find your contacts and get the blueprints to their governments. If you can, perhaps even send a few technicians. That is all." The meeting closed, and the Necrons methodically left.

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

Orin looked at the other Ori. "How goes the efforts?"

"The Necron offensive is a wild success." Firla giggled. "The Orks are wonderful tools! Quir, I gotta hand it to ya, this was a great idea!"

"As always."

Orin nodded. "What of the other forces?"

"The Dark Eldar and the Imperium are the only ones still attempting to fight us directly - the Dark Eldar apparently don't care that they keep dying so they aren't slowing down, but the Imperium seems to be rethinking it's strategy. They've stopped sending large fleets after us and appear to be simply attempting to divert us with smaller forces. They've also found a way to calibrate the sensors to scan for us, so they know when one of our kind is in a fleet."

"What of our conversions?"

"Luther has been extremely useful." Iris spoke up. "He has converted more worlds since he was turned into a Prior than we have since the start of our engagement here. He has even turned two of his brethren to our side, more than making up the trouble we went to."

Orin nodded. "Good then… what of Chaos?"

There was silence. Nobody knew about Chaos.

Orilek laughed at the silence. "Why are we fearful of them? They have stayed in their little sub dimension, unable to leave without serious retaliation. There is nothing we need to worry about. We'll just deal with them when the time comes."

Quir frowned. "You are being a fool Orilek-"

"No, I'm not. Our power knows no bounds! One day we will confront them and be victorious! Understand old man?"

Quir shook his head. "I feel sorry for you and your pointless violent urges…"

"Old man, shut it."

Orin put a stop to the argument. "Enough! We are Ori - not bickering siblings. We need worshippers, and we are gaining more by the hour. We would be best to use that power wisely."

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

Iris appeared before the Eldar Farseer.

"Something's troubling you."

The Eldar Farseer nodded.

"What have you seen?"

He said nothing. Iris frowned. "Why don't you want to tell me? If it's horrid, perhaps I can stop it-"

"Not even your power can stop this."

"What?"

The Eldar Farseer said nothing. Iris narrowed her eyes. "Look, if it's bad, at least we can hit it head on and make it a lot easier for the rest of you if you want to think about it like that. Tell me what it is-"

He took a breath. "Another Black Crusade is going to form. I don't know when. I don't know where. It just is. And it's going to become a blemish on this sector of the Galaxy…"

Iris nodded. "We will prepare for that." Then she was gone.

The Eldar Farseer sighed. He was associating with angels - and he was pretty sure they were only slightly better than the demons.

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

The Eldar wanted nothing to do with the Necron technicians, only taking the blueprints and then having nothing else to do with their hated enemies. The Necrons didn't even know if they were really building any Nevermore Spires.

On the other hand the Dark Eldar…

"Pain." Asdrubael Vect, Archon of the Kabal of the Black Heart said. "It is our lifeblood. It keeps our souls alive."

The Necron technician said nothing.

"And you have provided us with a way to induce more pain than ever before to the strongest beings we can reach. I believe thanks are in order." He smirked. "Work will begin immediately, and your Necron Alliance has need only make a request and they will be brought to Commoragh."

"This is acceptable."

"Is it?" Asdrubael said, looking deep into the Necron. "Do you really want to associate with us?"

"It is that or destruction at the hands of the Ori. In truth, we care little about you or your race."

"You're a horrible liar. Which is strange, considering that you're a machine. I know all about your Necron desire to reclaim the cosmos and recreate your old empire."

The technician said nothing. Asdrubael was silent for a while, then threw a knife into the back of a random Dark Eldar. He fell, dead. The Necron didn't twitch.

"Interesting." Asdrubael said, sitting back down into his throne. "I have given instructions to my subjects not to harm you, for you are doing important work. However I expect many won't listen. I take no responsibility for your untimely demise." He chuckled. "Though I may relish in it."

The Necron twitched at that.

"You are associating with Dark Eldar, _Necron,_ I assumed you knew what you were getting into. If not, have a nice remainder of your life." Then he leaned forward. "And I better see progress - you are here only to make this go faster. If I get annoyed more than I already am, I am going to find out just how to break a Necron. Understood?"

He didn't even give the Necron a chance to agree before dismissing him.

Then Asdrubael was alone in his throne room. He had dismissed the slaves and the guards. He growled.

This would take care of the Ori, but there was still one problem he had serious issues with.

Tyranids.

Dark Eldar space was where the bulk of the Tyranid force was. And Asdrubael had plans to deal with every race - except the extragalactic bugs. They adapted too fast.

The Dark Eldar could hold them for now…

…but Asdrubael knew that the forces they were currently dealing with were just scouts. And he had no idea what was coming after this.

Commoragh itself was more or less safe in the webway - but he knew that the Tyranids would adapt to get in eventually.

Deep down, he knew they were a doomed race.

He supposed it was fitting that they would die from an alien race rather than their own pain and hunger…

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

Somewhere in a sparsely populated area of the sector, pinkish energy surged. Space warped in impossible shapes, and a tear opened in the fabric of reality.

Daemons spewed forth, entering the physical world in immense numbers. Living ships, magical constructs, and patterns of space that made no sense made their way out. Screams could be heard in the nothingness of space, and a deep, deep laughter boomed.

A new Black Crusade was beginning. And this time, they would have an advantage…

The Chaos Will Rise.

 _ **EEZO THEATER**_

Tau Ethereal Aun'shi aka Aun Vre Aun'shi was far from a normal Ethereal, for he frequently fought alongside members of the Tau Fire Caste, a feat which had earn him unbridled adoration of all who served with him. As such he and he alone was selected by the Ethereal Council to have supreme command of the Exploration Fleet in the Southern area of the galaxy. For such a historical mission, Aun'shi had personally selected Tau of each Caste whose duty to The Greater Good would be needed for the great unknown that lay ahead of them. For the leader of the Fire Caste, he had chosen Commander Shadowsun aka O'Shaserra, for the Earth Caste he had chosen O'Ishu'ron, for the Wind Caste he had chosen Kor'o Y'eldi, and for the Water Caste he had chosen Myen O'Res. Each of these four had skills and experience necessary to the further spread of The Greater Good and all were honored to be serving alongside one another.

The Exploration Fleet had travelled South for nearly countless days but many were pleased to find that there were merely stars and planets as opposed to another Tyranid Hive Fleet. Eventually, however, the fleet entered into a region of space that showed clear signs of life, and several small groups of unknown ships were seen apparently patrolling the region. A strange construct was observed nearby resembling a Human tuning fork with two spinning disks held within the tongs. The unknown ships soon detected the fleet and moved to engage the Tau.

The unknown fleet opened fire upon the Tau Exploration Fleet once they were within weapons range and despite the heavy barrage of kinetically powered shells, the Exploration Fleet sustained only minor damage. They quickly launched a series of retaliatory strikes against the unknown fleet; railguns and ion batteries fired upon the unknown ships and utterly destroyed them. The shielding used by the unusual ships fairing better against the railguns than the Ion cannons - but it mattered not in the end. The unknown fleet was ripped apart by the might of the Tau. First blood, and the greatest change to the Eezo sector of the galaxy, went to the Tau.

 **NEW THEATERS OPENING: EEZO AND PEGASUS.**


	8. T-MINUS 244 YEARS

**_T-MINUS 244 YEARS_**

 **(ORBSyndicate) (Stargate, Battlestar Galactica, Star Trek, MLP, Warhammer 40k, Mass Effect, and ?)**

Peace.

O'Neill sat back in his chair, face blank as it hit him.

There was _peace._ Ever since he had joined the stargate program, it had been year after year of nonstop violence and war.

First there was the insurmountable Goa'uld war that was won by the skin of their teeth.

Secondarily there was the Ori war, a war that was often thought to have been cut short before it could really begin.

Then there was the shadow war with the Lucian Alliance - it was never really a full-on war, but there were always conflicts and they had been at each others throats for a long time.

And most recently, there had been the Klingon war that had launched the entire sector into chaos. But this had been ended as well - and with the end of the war came the fall of the Lucian Alliance, and the creation of the Coalition…

…and since the Romulans had evidentially gotten the hell outta dodge, there were no enemies in this sector of the galaxy. The Wraith were too far away to be a threat at the moment - and operation Spirit Seal was going off without a hitch.

O'Neill realized he wasn't entirely sure what to do next. He had been fighting for this peace for decades, and now… there was nothing to worry about.

This worried him.

He had considered finally retiring - he was a three star General and could probably get Cam to take his place if need be. But… well, he found that he no longer wanted to let it go. He wanted to be involved. A program he had joined somewhat reluctantly now seemed to be his entire life. He'd probably do it till he died - and with recent advances made with ancient technology he'd been told that he may live for another century or something.

Of course, that was assuming he didn't die from exploding or something.

Then an idea came to him.

He had a ship - the Enterprise. And it was named after a certain exploration vessel…

It was time to go _exploring!_

 _[][][][][][][][][][][][]_

Mere months later, the Enterprise was in orbit around a human populated world. This was pretty standard, to be honest - humans were the most prevalent race in the Galaxy thanks to the Alterans and their obsession with spreading their "children" around. They were even more common in the Earth Sector thanks to the Goa'uld…

No, what was interesting was that there was spaceships around the world. A lot of them - until now, the only other spacefaring humans the Tau'ri had come across were the Hebridans and the Tollan, and one of those was long gone while the other was part of the Tau'ri now.

O'Neill smirked. This should be interesting.

"Open a channel." He said, adjusting his military uniform. "I am General O'Neill of the Tau'ri calling from the Enterprise. We are peaceful explorers from a star far from here. Tell me, who are you?"

It took several minutes for a response to come.

"We are the Twelve Colonies of Kobol, and I am President Adar. It is… most interesting that you come here in a warship and talk of peace."

O'Neill laughed. "Adar, space is a really mean place. I'm telling you right now that it's rather ugly out there. But luckily for you there happens to be an unprecedented peace over the Sector, so you won't have to worry about any wars just yet."

There was silence. "We would love if we could meet in person."

"Just tell me where to go. Or would you rather come up here? We can do that."

Adar paused. "You coming down here sounds preferable. The Battlestar Pegasus will send an escort-"

"Or we could just beam down."

"What?"

O'Neill smirked. He loved this. "Teleport? We can do that. Just give me the location and I can be there instantly."

"…I suppose we can offer you a location when we are ready…"

"Just call us back on this frequency when you want. I'm a patient man when I want to be."

[][][][][][][][][][][][]

"The plan is being aborted." One said, frowning. "These newcomers have ruined everything."

The other Cylons agreed. "They are beginning to explore the stars around the Colonies looking for us - they are wishing to establish relations with us."

One growled. "But they are still _human_ \- thirteenth colony or not, they are still our enemy. They all have the audacity to think they are better than us."

Some of the other Cylons nodded while a few just rolled their eyes.

"What is our course of action?" Six asked.

Three furrowed his brow. "They will find us if we stay here - so we must leave. We must abandon the Colony and get out of this area of space. Head towards the rim, away from where they came."

"That is a temporary solution at best."

"It buys us time." One pointed out. "Time to figure out how to deal with them."

The Cylons nodded. The motion was carried, and the ships began to evacuate.

[][][][][][][][][][][][]

Adar had been offered a chance to see the Coalition Central Station, and he wasn't going to pass it up. For one, it seemed like the correct political thing to do, make a show of trust to the obviously very powerful Coalition. Secondly, he wanted to see what the great races of the Galaxy had made together - and he wanted to see if his people could profit from that.

It had been a.. hectic past few months. O'Neill had come in his great ship Enterprise - apparently the Flagship of the entire Coalition in addition to the Tau'ri - and opened the floodgates to a wider cosmos. These past few weeks he had learned that aliens existed, that Kobol was not the origin place of humanity, and that they were in fact a race created by one of the Ancient Races. It was a lot to take in, but the Coalition had been welcoming and tried to answer all their questions truthfully - unless one of the Colonials got a bit nosy about military affairs.

He looked out the window of the Vulcan craft he was taking to the station. Even with the technology for hyperdrive they had traded for (the Coalition was very interested in jump technology, saying it was similar to wormhole drive but a bit more practical) the Colonial ships were still far too slow to get to Coalition space. He was going to have to find some way to get the Coalition to give up more technology… He really didn't like being the small fish in the pond.

The ship docked with the station and Adar disembarked with his entourage. He smiled as he entered the station - it was somewhat simplistic compared to some of the other alien designs he had seen, but it was obviously state of the art. Great windows provided amazing views of the stars outside, and the station was lined with people of every shape and kind. Various shops lined this area - it was called a promenade he believed - and everyone seemed to have a nice look about them.

He headed straight for the central room, where meetings were held. To his mild embarrassment the Equestrians had noticed him staring - he couldn't help it, they were so alien and foreign to him. Sentient horses… though he supposed the Dragons and Griffons were more unusual. Then there were also the blue Andorians… so many unusual shapes and figures…

But humanity was the most common. It was somehow comforting to him that most of the major powers were humans - even if they had nothing to do with Kobol. At least they were kindred.

He walked into the room, where seven diplomats from each of the Coalition members waited. Vulcan, Tellarite, Andorian, Tau'ri, Jaffa, Reform, and Equi. The Equi in question was a Zebra, and the Reform was obviously one of the Priors Adar had heard so much about.

"Ah, president adar." The Tau'ri officer said. "Welcome. I believe we have made you feel welcome here?"

"Yes of course."

"Then without further ado we have much to discuss concerning your people…"

[][][][][][][][][][][][]

In another area of the station, Colonial Priest Esmerelda was discussing religions with a group of Coalition members at a restaurant. She was explaining her own - how they believed the gods helped them find their Colonies, and how they watched over them still.

"It sounds like you may have been fooled by Goa'uld." A Jaffa, Re'tin, said.

A member of the Reform, Sammy, shook her head. "No, the Goa'uld ruled with nothing more than a desire to prove their power. These gods sound more… helpful. Perhaps a group of Ascended beings?"

Esmerelda was a little insulted. "Or they could really exist perhaps?"

Re'tin harrumphed. Sammy sheepishly blushed. "Sorry, it's just that religions have been proven wrong many times. The Jaffa are almost completely atheistic now. My people follow New Origin, though I suppose technically that is more of a way of life than a religion."

"What of the other members of your coalition? What are their religions like?" Esmerelda asked, genuinely curious. It was her job to be a spiritual leader for her people, and she needed to know what the others were like.

"I don't know about the Andorians or Tellarites." Sammy said. "But Earth's religions are many and varied. Many are atheistic, but the majority worship a singular God. How He should be worshipped is not really agreed on."

Esmerelda tensed a little at this. There had been a recent movement on her world for a monotheistic religion - if they learned of this it might rekindle the flames…

"…they also have a few nature-related religions, Buddhism, and Hinduism…" Esmerelda absorbed the information as Sammy explained.

Then the unicorn at the table spoke up, a mare by the name of Moondancer. "Huh. You guys take religion rather seriously. It's more of a relaxed thing in Equestria - we're pretty evenly split between Faustism, Alicornism, Harmonism, and Naturism. Faust is I guess just our world for God or Creator, Alicornism is the worship of alicorns and magic itself, Harmonism is more of a way of life than a worship - though a few Harmonists do worship the Tree of Harmony, and Naturism is just a reverence for all life." She took a bite out of her sandwich. "Personally, I'm a loose follower of Harmonism's ideals. Didn't used to be though."

Sammy was interested in one aspect though. "Alicornism? Aren't your leaders alicorns?"

Moondancer was obviously a little uncomfortable. "Er… yeah. Our rulers do nothing to dispel the religion because ponies are free - but I know Twilight personally and she really hates the idea of being called a goddess. The ponies kinda just do it because they're so powerful."

"What of the other races of your world?"

Moondancer shrugged. "I don't know much - I know the Zebras either borrow our religions or worship their many gods of the forest, and the Griffons have some weird code of honor that they've recently revived. And the Dragons… I have no idea about the Dragons."

Esmerelda took all this information in. It was a lot…

[][][][][][][][][][][][]

"Large energy spike from Mt. Ebott!"

The call came into Carter's office since O'Neill was offworld, and she instantly had the in-orbit Hermes investigate while she looked over the readings. She frowned - it was as if some great source of energy had just exploded, but not left any debris behind. What was it?

"Uh.. General Carter?" The call came in, obviously very unsure of what to do.

Carter sighed. She could already tell this was going to be fun. "What is it?"

"Well… we've got a kid surrounded by a group of strange looking aliens ma'am. They seem to have crawled out of the mountains. The… kid seems to be talking for them. Something about her being their chosen ambassador for humanity or something."

Carter let out a breath of air. She could already tell this was going to be a paperwork nightmare.

 ** _WARP SECTOR_**

The Eldar Farseer ran into the Elder Council. "We have a problem."

"What have you seen?"

"At the edge of our visions we have come to notice that the true Tyrannid force is incoming - and it is twenty times as large as the scout force we have been dealing with."

Isis, who was watching the proceedings while invisible, groaned inwardly. It would be very pointless to subjugate this area of the Galaxy if it was just going to be eaten by some outer cluster bugs…

"Why can you only see them now?"

The Farseer sighed. "Our farsight has limits - we have determined with this last wave that there is a kind of wall blocking our visions roughly thirty-thousand light years from the edge of the Galactic disc. The Tyranid wave has just crossed through this barrier."

Isis couldn't believe what she was hearing.

"How long do we have?"

"At most five years. At least… less than one." The Farseer frowned. "We are having enough trouble as it is…"

"What are we to do?" The Eldar Elder asked the others. "We cannot hold out against such innumerable forces."

The Farseer frowned. "The way I see it we have two options - try to do what the Tau are doing and hope we can find a world that is safe from the Tyrannids, though that would only be a temporary solution. Or we ally ourselves with the Ori."

"Blasphemy!"

"Would you prefer I say ally ourselves with Chaos? Because as proud as we are, we cannot stand against this threat alone."

The Elders frowned. "Perhaps we could ally with the other races?"

"The Tau would be willing, and they are not advanced enough to provide an edge."

The Elder frowned. "I was referring to our enemies - the Imperium, the Neurons, and are lost brethren."

"Have you lost your sanity?"

The Elder waved his hand. "We have already accepted the Ori slaying technology from the Necrons - who's to say we couldn't solidify relations more? We are aware the Necrons and our brethren have been improving relations lately as well. Perhaps we need to stand together."

The Farseer nodded. "Well we have to band together with someone - we cannot stand on our own."

The Elder nodded. "True. We will wait for the Tyranid wave to arrive - the others will be more willing to cooperate then."

The Eldar Farseer nodded. "I shall attempt to ascertain exactly when the Tyranids are going to arrive in force." He sighed. "May we find our survival…"

[][][][][][][][][][][][]

"The Tyranids are _extragalactic."_ iris said, uncertainty in her voice.

Orin frowned. "How?"

"I don't know - but they are somehow coming in from beyond the wall. The Eldar Farseers have detected a large portion of their force that has _just crossed_."

"In that case… Iris, take Trillesk and go investigate. Nothing has ever gone in our out of the Wall. Ever. This is unprecedented."

Iris nodded, setting to work.

[][][][][][][][][][][][]

Edwin of the Space Marines was staring down Luther.

"Traitor" He said.

"I am not a traitor." Luther responded. "I merely saw the light of Origin. You can too, brother. We do not need to destroy each other. We can Ascend our Emperor and become the true humanity."

"Not. Going. To. Happen."

"Surely you can realize that the Imperium is losing this war?" Luther said. "You fight valiantly - but none of you have been able to cause any of the Ori even the slightest pain. Only our Emperor himself could do anything - and he is only one."

Edwin growled. Luther was right - this was was being lost. As much as he hated to admit it, they were losing more planets than they had even in Black Crusades.

"Tell me one thing Luther. Why this war? Why bother trying to kill us - if these Ori wanted us to be their allies-"

"You know as well as I do that the Imperium does not understand diplomacy."

Edwin cursed. He was right.

"This war will end whenever you want it to." Luther said. "You don't even have to surrender - simply convert."

"Converting means giving up. Hardly better than surrendering."

"You are not giving up if you convert - you are simply realizing that the war can be won another way." Luther smiled. "Come, brother, and we can turn the Galaxy into what it should be. We could create the Imperium of Origin - with our Emperor at the top."

Edwin sighed. "You… Are right. But my conversion alone will do nothing - I cannot sway the entire Imperium."

"But you know a way to do so." Luther smiled. "Just get me to the Holy Terra system. I can give the Emperor what he deserves."

Edwin shook his head. "It would be difficult - I cannot get back to Holy Terra without a good reason-"

"Then wait for a reason. I'm a patient man. And I can find a way to get to you whenever it happens." He smiled. "We will turn our Imperium into what it deserves to be."

Edwin nodded. "I shall consider this."

"I hope you choose rightly, brother."

Luther smiled as he teleported away - he was carving out the path of Origin on his own. The Ori had recently stopped watching him closely, saying he was free to create Origin his own way.

He expected them to be extremely proud of him when his plans came to fruition.

[][][][][][][][][][][][]

"Interesting thing Iris." Trillesk said as they left the galactic disc. "Turns out the Necrons and Eldar have actually banded together. They're actually fighting back the Orks now."

"Huh."

"We may have to get involved personally…" He said. "Oh well, maybe the bugs will take care of them."

"And then we have to take care of the bugs." Iris noted. "They've resisted all psychological conditioning, and quite frankly there are a lot of them. It'll be an annoying proposition to take care of them."

"Ah, they are just biological creatures." Trillesk said. "There's nothing to worry abou-" He stopped instantly. Iris did the same. They could sense the Wall - a barrier that surrounded the entire Galaxy, from which nothing entered and nothing left. They couldn't actually see the Wall itself, but their Ori senses felt an odd… emptiness. They could feel the fabric of space-time itself most of the time - the Wall kept them from even feeling that.

"Notice how the fabric weaves up to the Wall, and starts coming back." Trillesk said. "It's fascinating - letting light through, but nothing else."

"Including our intelligence." Iris reminded him. "Don't try anything. We're just here to…" Then she stopped again.

They both stared at the area of space that was BLACK. Black with millions… no billions… no _trillions_ of Tyranid ships.

Iris gaped. "That's… that's too many."

"We have a problem." Trillesk noted.

[][][][][][][][][][][][]

The Chaos Sorcerer couldn't believe his luck - a high Daemon of Tzeentch was standing right before him.

"Great One, Keeper of Secrets, what is your bidding?"

The voice of the Keeper of Secrets was harsh, alien, and caused a minor headache when the Chaos Sorcerer heard it.

"The time is coming - the patterns of the future are being tied together. My Master has seen that the Tyranids are coming in a force unlike anything we've ever seen, and something is going to happen to the Emperor of Man." The Keeper of Secrets let out a laugh. "The galaxy will devolve into Chaos!"

The Sorcerer grinned. "Delicious Chaos!"

[][][][][][][][][][][][]

The Tyranid Hive-Mind _Thought._

 _The Barrier Is Unable To Remove Me. Adequate Attempt, But Futile. Energy Beings Detected And Analyzed - Threat Assessment Low. Begin Search For Source Of Barrier. Taking Full Control Of Scout Units._

 _Analyzing Information. Impossible Physics Within Barrier, As Expected. New Adaptations Acquired Using Impossible Physics. Adapting All Possible Units. Increasing Speed. Must Get Through Resistance Quickly - Just Over Two Centuries To Prepare Defenses._

 _I Do Not Think That Is Long Enough._

 ** _PEGASUS SECTOR_**

Starlight smiled. "Next!"

A wraith soldier walked in, looking a little pensive. Starlight lit her horn, activating the complex spell she had been working with for the past few months. In essence, it was two separate spells - the first spell sealed up the feeding organs on the Wraith's hands, and activated their digestive system. It was creatively known as the Spirit Seal.

It was much better than the biological engineering Todd and Keller had been working on - for one, it didn't try to change the Wraith's genome at all, only changing their makeup physically. Though this would mean any newborn Wraith would need to be treated upon birth - but that would hardly be a problem. There were several unicorns and Priors in the pegasus galaxy performing the Spirit Seal with ease.

So far, it had been a resounding success. There had been no physical complications - the Wraith could now eat regular food, but not suffer the debilitating problems that resulted from gene therapy. She went through one or two wraith a minute - the hours were long but the population of the galaxy were slowly being converted.

Well, those that wanted too anyway.

"Next!"

[][][][][][][][][][][][]

Woolsey looked at the reports from around the Pegasus Sector - the conversion was going well. Thousands of Wraith were willingly lining up for the treatment, and those that were't were being destroyed by the Tau'ri, Reform, rebel Wraith, and Traveler alliance. The Wraith seemed doomed.

But there was a problem to consider.

Todd was sitting across form Woolsey, a Prior at his left and a Traveler at his right. Todd got to the point. "The humans of this galaxy will not accept us." Todd said matter of factly.

"You did eat them for as long as they can remember." Woolsey pointed out.

"That was unavoidable." Todd noted. "And while I do admit to taking some… pleasure from the experience, I know when ways should be changed. We are changing so we do not need to feed - but their opinion of us will not change. And to be frank most Wraith still think they are lesser beings."

Woolsey nodded. "Well, what should we do about this?"

"I hear from the Reform that there is plenty of empty space in your sector of the galaxy - a Sector that knows little of our exploits out here. And even if they do know of us, they do not have millennia of bias against our kind."

"So…" Woolsey said, frowning. "You want to relocate all of the Wraith?"

"Essentially yes." He said. "Just give us a place of the Sector and we will live our lives without feeding, perhaps even being part of your Coalition."

Woolsey shook his head. "The Coalition is definitely not happening yet. But I do think we have enough extra space there to give you a small area." Woolsey turned to the Traveler - Anean was her name as he recalled - and frowned. "That means you will be the only permanent member of this alliance in Pegasus - we will be taking Atlantis back home once we are done here, and our presence will be reduced to just a few explorational teams."

Annan smirked. "I don't mind - we've been in the shadows enough. It's time for the Travelers to come out."

Woolsey nodded. "But all of this is a moot point until the Wraith problem is completely taken care of. Back to work."

[][][][][][][][][][][][]

John Shepard grinned as the alliance fleet was completely destroying the Wraith - queen after queen was falling, and they couldn't stop fighting each other long enough to retaliate. Sure, they had lost a few ships - but the war was easily tilting in their favor.

It helped to have allies, he realized.

Drones, lasers, plasma bolts, and even some experimental Equis magic weapons fired left and right, decimating hive after hive. There had been more than a few moments where the Wraith hives had just turned tail and ran when an Reform ship dropped into the sector.

It was nice to be winning.

[][][][][][][][][][][][]

 _"_ This meeting of the Vanir high council is called to order." A grey alien said, blinking. Another one spoke.

"The Wraith are being converted or driven to near extinction - estimates predict that they shall be taken out completely within five years. Other estimates say that our planet does not have that long."

"What if we offer our assistance in driving off the Wraith threat? They have allied with the Wraith traitor in order to meet this end - perhaps they will be willing to listen to us."

"They are unlikely to do so - they were less than cooperative with our suggestions last time."

"We were being coercive."

"That matters not - it is simply what needed to be done. They will not trust us. So we will assist from the shadows. Mobilize the fleet."

"We have not mobilized the fleet in centuries."

"That matters not. We are doing it now. For at this moment, we begin a shadow war with the Wraith." The Vanir folded his hands. "There will be no survivors."

"What of the rebel Wraith?"

"Do not target their outposts or plants if you can help it, but if such a thing were to come to pass there would be no punishment. A Wraith is a Wraith."

"Understood."

"And let us use the Lethri. It was effective before, it can be effective again with minor twists."

The meeting was concluded.

[][][][][][][][][][][][]

The Romulan Bird of Prey watched as Reform and Wraith rebel ships fought a bunch of hives. It watched closely as the Reform Ship's shields fell, and the ship began to explode.

"Now." The Romulan captain commanded. Instantly, the transporter activated and teleported a handful of individuals from the exploding ship to the brig. Reports came in - they got a few unimportant personnel, but they also obtained a Prior and a unicorn.

Perfect. The backwater nature of the Pegasus galaxy was proving to be easier to work in. Less security.

 ** _EEZO SECTOR_**

 ** _(Nano Soldier 2016)_**

With the unknown but proven hostile fleet destroyed, Aun'shi commanded the Tau fleet to advance towards the planet that the unknown ships had been patrolling around. A brief scan of the planet revealed that intelligent life lived upon the world - though the environmental conditions of the planet were unsuitable for Tau colonization or travel.

"We must establish contact with the race that occupies the this world for the Greater Good. Myen O'Res, send messages of peace and a desire to negotiate on all channels until a response is achieved." Aun'shi ordered the greatest translator and negotiator the Tau Water Caste had seen: Myen O'Res.

"As you command, Ethereal." Myen O'Res immediately gathered his fellow Water Caste that were present upon the lead ship whilst also communicating with the others located throughout the Exploration Fleet.

"O'Ishu'ron, see if you can send a group of your fellows to salvage anything from the wreckage of the unknown fleet. Knowledge of their technology will help with pacification should the owners prove unwilling to join the Greater Good." Aun'shi said to the leader of the Tau Earth Caste, who nodded before leaving the bridge to commune with the others

"I do believe, O'Shaserra, that there will be many battles ahead of us in this new expansion of the Tau Empire. Don't you agree?" Asked Aun'shi to O'Shaserra.

She turned to face her superior before speaking: "I do believe that you are correct. However, if other races are as inferior in war as that fleet was then this area of space will belong to the Greater Good and us within a small time scale." Aun'shi placed a hand under his chin as Myen O'Res continued to switch through communication channels.

[][][][][][][][][][][][]

The Citadel Council had been in an emergency session for only a few minutes. The Turian Counsellor had demanded a meeting with his fellow Councillors after he'd received the last transmissions of the Turian patrol fleet. The fleet in question had been destroyed following first contact with an unknown alien power that had deployed devastatingly powerful kinetic and directed energy based weapons.

Normally this would be a meeting of level heads on the matter of how to make contact with the new race and to bring them into the arms of the Citadel. However, there were only two level heads in this meeting as Turian lives and territory had been affected… in short, Counsellor Sparatus wanted blood.

"These unknowns completely destroyed my people's fleet and as such have left the key of Turian economy unprotected! I won't have my people suffer economic turmoil because of some upstart race that got lost! I demand action to be taken." Growled the Turian Councillor as he repeatedly opened and closed his talons in a vain attempt to keep his anger in check. His two equals in power could easily tell he was furious.

Tevos, ever the mediator during tense situations like these, calmed and firmly laid out her response. "Whilst it is tragic that several of your people are now dead, the fact remains that this is a new race who couldn't possibly have known they'd entered Turian space let alone the system in which the Volus homeworld is located. Your own combat footage shows they acted in self defense after your patrol fleet attacked them without even attempting to make contact or explain the situation to them. I will not support any retaliatory attacks against this new species until we have determined if they are lost or actively aggressive."

Sparatus was about to protest when Valern, the Salarian Councillor, interrupted to make his own stance on the matter. "I agree with Tevos, we can't attack a new alien race without evidence that their presence in Turian space was deliberate or not. I suggest that a small ship with Council Spectres is sent out to meet with the new race and open diplomatic channels with them; if they are attacked or the new race states hostile intentions, then we can sanction counter strategies and muster the fleets." Sparatus wanted to object, but he knew better than to try to go against both of his fellow Councillors without an advantage of some kind. He reluctantly accepted the plan to send a group of Spectres to meet with the new race - but no one had said he and his people couldn't prepare for the worst...

[][][][][][][][][][][][]-

After several minutes of broadcasting a message of peace and mutual cooperation, Myen O'Res and his fellow Water Caste finally received a transmission in response to the message. The alien language was rapidly broken down, analyzed, and cross referenced with known speech patterns until the Water Caste possessed a decent enough idea as to the structure of the alien language. They could now reply with some reasonable clarity. Myen O'Res crafted the response to the alien message. The efforts of the Water Caste were rewarded when, moments later, another response was given and Myen O'Res immediately began full dialogue with the alien species - whose name was Volus. The negotiations started with extreme suspicion on the part of the Volus due to the destruction of the unknown fleet - which Myen O'Res soon discovered belonged to another race called the Turians and that they were the protectors of the Volus.

"Representative of the Volus homeworld, whilst we are sorry for the deaths of the Turians, they did attack us first without any attempts to peacefully resolve the situation. The Tau don't come as conquers but as friends and allies to those who wish to know us; we have united several species together under the Empire's control, we would ask that we be given the chance to improve your races standard of living. From what you have described and from what you have told me, the Turians conquered your kind and forced you to assist them in economic matters that weren't your own - the Tau can offer you a better way under the Greater Good as equals in all aspects. We ask that you consider our offer, we will be remaining in this sector of space till we can determine the next area of civilized space." Myen O'Res cut the connection soon after and began contemplating the information he'd gained from the discussion with the Volus representative. "This Citadel Council will need to be met with as soon as possible so that they don't obstruct us in expanding the reach of the Greater Good. If they prove to be uncooperative, they will need to be dealt with eventually."

[][][][][][][][][][][][]

The Council had little time to waste in preparing a diplomatic and Spectre team, so they were forced to use what they had at the time. For the three Spectres, the Council selected Nihlus Kryik, Jondum Bau and Tela Vasir. Several well known Asari diplomats joined them for the First Contact mission with the alien fleet that had arrived in Turian space.

"Nihlus, what's your stand on the matter?" Asked Jondum to his fellow Spectre.

"As a Spectre, I'm curious about this new race and their weaponry; as a Turian, I want to make it known to them that we don't like unknown aliens arriving in our territory ."

Vasir stood to the side of her fellow Spectres, watching from the side lines and being generally uninterested in the conversation. She had better things to do, namely figuring out the best way to acquire useful information about the new species that she could give to the Shadow Broker; with that kind of info, she'd be able to negotiate a sizable amount of useful Intel that could be used to help people...and herself.

"Spectres, we're about to arrive at our destination. Come to the bridge so that negotiations can begin as soon as possible." Stated the Captain of the ship and the trio of Spectres headed towards the bridge.


	9. T-MINUS 243 YEARS

**_T-MINUS 243 YEARS (Stargate, Undertale, X-files, MLP)_**

 ** _(ORBSyndicate)_**

 ** _EARTH SECTOR_**

It had been a few months since Frisk had led the monsters out of the Underground and into the light of the sun. They literally only had a few moments of peace and quiet after everyone spread out before the vehicles arrived - black vans, helicopters, and a _deadalus class_ _ship_ were upon them within seconds.

It took a few hours, but Frisk eventually explained the situation to Carter. Much to Frisk's surprise, Carter had just accepted the tale of the "lost alien civilization" and spent the next few days talking directly to Asgore. It took a full day for Carter to actually take Asgore seriously that Frisk actually _was_ chosen as the ambassador. It took Carter several more days to take the little girl seriously - but it was soon discovered that Frisk really did have the skills to broker peace. Even if it wasn't really required in this instance. The Tau'ri were completely open to peace and had no desire to kill the monsters - much to their relief.

Though there was the little problem of where to locate them all - they could all still live in the Underground if they wanted, but most wanted to live on the surface with the sun. And all of Earth was pretty much overrun with humans, there wasn't enough space for an entire population to be moved…

Monsters had been preparing to move out of the underground for months, and they wanted _out_. Not just temporarily either. The situation was getting a little tense…

Frisk really hoped that her meeting with Daniel today was supposed to solve the problem. She walked into the office.

"Before you ask, yes, today's meeting will solve the problem, but i'm not sure if you'll like it." Daniel frowned. "We can move you offworld."

Frisk blinked. "I don't see why that's a problem."

"Well…" Daniel sighed. "Many times when relocation is considered, most individuals would like to stay on their home planet, not a place they have no idea about."

"We won't mind." Frisk said, siting back. "Everyone just wants out of the Underground. The only thing we want besides space is the ability to interact with you."

Daniel nodded, smiling. "Well then you'll like this. We'd move you to our most advanced colony, Midgard, in a new city you'll name yourself. I recommend you _not_ let Asgore name it." The two of them chuckled. Then Daniel sighed. "However, we can only move you there if you agree to become part of not only the Coalition, but the Tau'ri. Politically, it's our world."

"Well, what would that mean?" Frisk asked.

"It would mean that your… you really need to call yourselves something other than 'monsters…' people would be held to the UNs laws and regulations, be required to send a representative to the UN, and basically behave yourselves."

"That won't be a problem Daniel." Frisk said, smiling. "Almost everyone is really nice in the Underground. I'll talk with Asgore about it, but really, there's no problem here. We aren't your normal human settlement with a bunch of political stuff. We are pretty simple."

Daniel smiled. "And all of us thank you for that so much. Believe me, this could have taken years to organize…"

Frisk smiled. "Don't worry, it'll all work out."

—

 _"_ Welcome to Coalition News, and do we have some stories for you!

The Undergrounders have officially signed the documents adding themselves to the Tau'ri Alliance, and are being relocated to Midgard as we speak to an as-of-yet unnamed city only a few kilometers away from Nexus. Many citizens are complaining that this unknown group is getting such premium real estate close to the hub of Coalition affairs, but resistance is minimal.

Digging through wizarding world records has revealed that their legends speak of the Undergrounders - and in fact that some of their kind have existed alongside us without our knowledge. The Tau'ri government is working closely with the spellcasters to find these lost souls and bring them back into the folds of their people should they want it.

Coalition Morale is at an all time high, possibly due to the fact that the adaptation of the Undergrounders into society has gone off so smoothly…"

—

Romulan Star Empire Tactical Race Report Summary

The Romulan Star Empire has been made aware of many races and nations throughout the Galaxy, and many pose a threat to the Empire's supremacy. What follows is a summary of the best intel on the major powers in the Empire's sphere of influence.

VOID SECTOR RACES

One thing that is evident is the strange lack of life within our own sector of the Galaxy. The sector hasn't been fully explored, but the vast majority of planets are dead. There are a few exceptions to this rule, chiefly the DIscworld, Equis, and the Romulan Star Empire itself.

EQUI

The Equi are a collection of races from the planet Equis. All of the races have relatively primitive societies, with the exceptions of the Equestrians and Minotaurs. And with the technology gifts from the Tau'ri, the other races of Equis have been more-or-less united into a single force, however loosely aligned they may be.

The "magic" field around Equis is second only to the field around the Discworld, and it has blessed virtually everything on the planet with phenomenal power to alter reality on a fundamental scale. A full report of effects can be found in section 13B, though it is important to realize that even though the "magic" is dangerous, it is also useful to us when fashioned correctly.

Equis society is generally focused on harmony and cooperation, with only one major power on the planet refusing to join the alliance - the Centaur/Gargoyle kingdom. It is worth noting that most Equi are rather naive, and can be fooled with simple manipulation.

There is no Romulan presence on Equi due to a plethora of "Changeling Detection Spells." No force has been sent to the planet due to the inhabitant's ability to alter the position of their sun. The Empire has come up with no way to defend against that large of an object.

The Equi do pose a minor threat to the Empire due to their astounding mental quickness. In only a few years they have already invented their own technologies to get them to the stars. Their technological progress is alarmingly rapid - just as rapid as the Tau'ri themselves.

It is of note that Queen Chrysalis is open to negotiations with any side, and possible use of her Changeling forces may be a prudent course of action in the future if use of such forces can be acquired.

DISCWORLD

The people of the Discworld are too varied to describe here, a full description can be found in section 14C. The entire world is undergoing an industrial revolution being imported out of the Ankh-Morpork city-state. The Discworld itself is a large interstellar creature that has the appearance of a turtle with four elephants and a large disc upon its back. The origin of this creature is unknown. The many nations of the Disc are hardly united, wars are common even inside the borders of single governments. Despite this, the Ankh-Morporkians have begun forging beyond their world with a stargate task-force based on the Tau'ri's designs.

Magic basically _is_ the Disc - the people believe things, and because enough of them do, it becomes reality. The various gods they believe in actually do exist, and are forces to be reckoned with. It has been determined that while the gods are normally uninterested in mortal affairs, if the Discworld itself is ever threatened, they will most likely act. This is the primary reason the Disc has been left to its own devices - the Empire's scientists and tacticians are working on a way to deal with these gods. As of yet, we have not obtained plans from the Tau'ri for the anti-prior device or the Ascended Weapon.

There are a few Romulan agents on the Disc, mainly in Ankh-Morpork watching their stargate program. The Patrician may be aware of the Empire's presence, but we are unsure.

The Disc's threat to the Empire is minimal - they have no ships and their magic is confined to the orbits of their mini-sun and moon.

Genetic engineering tests done on the various races of the Disc can be found in section 9A

HOME SECTOR RACES

Also known as the Tau'ri, Earth, or Alteran sector, this Sector is where we have the most complete information. Information on our brethren, the Vulcans, can be found in other documents. What concerns us is that now every major power within the Home Sector is under a single united power - The Coalition.

THE COALITION

Consisting of seven powers - Tau'ri, Reform, Jaffa, Equi, Tellarites, Andorans, and Vulcans - the Coalition is the most powerful force the Romulan Empire is aware of, even more so than the Romulan Star Empire itself. Each individual side was once separate, but are now working together with an unfortunate continuation of unity. As of yet the Empire sees no way to break these ties.

Every Romulan is aware of the Tellarites, Andorians, Vulcans, and Jaffa, for they have been in our history books since the day we left Vulcan. The Tellarites, Andorians, and Vulcans have changed little - their technological improvement has been much slower than the Empires. All their societies are still roughly the same.

This is not the case with the Jaffa.

FREE JAFFA NATION

The Jaffa own the largest section of the Coalition. They are a proud and honor-driven people, once a warrior race, but with their freedom they have finally become a proper civilization. Most of the Coalition's military might (but not tech level) comes from them, for they have ships numbering in the hundreds. Just because the ships are primitive does not mean they are not a threat in sufficient numbers.

Jaffa can easily be manipulated by their sense of honor and devotion to their code. However, this is unlikely to work multiple times on the same Jaffa, for while their intelligence is lower than average, they are not stupid.

THE REFORM

The Reform are the most dangerous of the groups, and the Empire is lucky that not only is most of their space is located in a star cluster outside the galactic disc, but also that their technology is small in number. Not to mention that they no longer possess the means to create more of their ships and devastating Priors without their Ori.

We have developed minor deterrents to their "magic" wielding Priors, but they are horribly inefficient. We have been unable to acquire an anti-Prior device, so tests in the Pegasus Sector are ongoing to discover a way to counteract their considerable powers.

It has been suggested that the Empire target the supergate and destroy it so none of the Ori ships can get to the galaxy proper. This is a temporary solution at best - it will just take a few weeks for them to arrive from the star cluster instead of instant. Nothing we can accomplish within a few weeks is worth it.

TAU'RI ALLIANCE

The Tau'ri are arguably the head of the Coalition, which makes some logical sense if one considers that they are themselves a group of aligned people. Of these, only Earth and Hebridan have infrastructure for constructing starships - other worlds like Langara and Midgard having only been converted recently.

The Tai'ri are the largest threat the Romulan Empire is aware of - they have been gifted with technology left behind by the ancient Alterans and Asgard, and unlike the Reform they know how to use it and _how to make more._ As this report is written and read, more ships are constructed, more technologies researched, and more ideas formed. The Tau'ri develop at an alarming rate, always striving to increase their technological base. Despite our best efforts, we simply seem unable to meet their technological advancement. it is suspected this is because they have a much larger technology base to work off of than we do.

it is impossible to list all of their technologies, for they have hundreds. The best hyperdrives, the schematics for stargates, transporters, etc. Despite the relatively low-tech base of many within the Tau'ri alliance, they have been remarkable.

They are a threat to the Romulan Empire that cannot be ignored. But as of yet, there have been no suggestions as to how to deal with them. If any part of the Coalition is attacked, the rest will retaliate, and the Romulan Star Empire would not survive the resulting war. We will be unable to engineer another war for centuries, and it is doubted that even if the Romulans and Klingons worked as one could the Coalition be defeated.

New plans must be considered.

KLINGONS

The Klingons are a simple warrior race that are easily manipulated. They are of no concern. It is worth noting that when dealing with them one must not identify oneself as a Romulan - they no longer trust us.

COLONIALS

A small group of space-borne humanoids that had a runaway AI problem. They are insignificant, though their jump-based FTL is interesting. They are new on the galactic stage and are minuscule compared to all the other powers.

PEGASUS SECTOR RACES

The Coalition has heavy forces deployed in the Pegasus Sector to deal with the powers there. As of right now, we are aware of only three, though rumors of an Asgard offshoot race and a race of replicating nanomachines exist.

THE TRAVELERS

The allies of the Coalition, and possible future members, the Travelers own little (if any) planets and spend all their time in space. Their tech level is primitive, but they are extremely resourceful and "plucky."

WRAITH HIVES

The Wraith Hives are a loose association of humanoid creatures that feed off life-energy. The process is known to be extremely painful and isn't fully understood.

The Wraith themselves are arrogant, entitled, and easy to fool. While they may be unimaginably strong and have tremendous ships, this is easily overcome with superior tactics and tech-base, as the Coalition has proved.

The Wraith Hives may have once been a major threat to Romulan supremacy, but given that there are only a handful left, they are unimportant.

REBEL WRAITH

Led by a Wraith named Todd, the Rebel Wraith have decided to side with the Coalition against their brethren in the name of survival. The Priors and Equestrian Unicorns have fashioned a magical way to cure them of their need to feed, therefore making peace between the Wraith and other sentient life-forms possible. It is known that after the war in the Pegasus Sector is dealt with they will be returning with the Coalition to the Home Sector, since they will not be welcome in their own area of space. They are another possible future member of the Coalition.

With this many possible new members of the Coalition, it is slightly disturbing to see so many sides like the idea of a large-scale galactic alliance. It is likely that the Coalition will continue to grow as it encounters more races, meaning time is of the essence.

—

"Mulder?"

"Yes Lyra?"

"You ever wonder why we're here?"

Mulder thought about this. "Well, I suppose I've wondered about it more often than is healthy. Even if there is evidence that we are the children of the Alterans, is that all we are? Just a biological construct designed to keep the dream going? Or is there some cosmic intelligence watching over us, and does that intelligence care about us or not? I don't know Lyra… But I think about it a lot."

Lyra blinked. "I mean, why are we _here_? In the X-files office? Doing nothing?"

Mulder blinked. "Oh. Uh. I think it was because Scully said she had a case and you happened to be with me when she called so…"

"Exactly. Where _is_ she and _why hasn't she gotten here yet?"_ Lyra grumbled, drinking some coffee.

In the corner, Bon Bon rolled her eyes. "Please Lyra, be patient, it's not like she i-"

Scully walked into the office, dropping a file on Mulder's desk. "We have a true X-file here Mulder."

Mulder raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

"I mean we've just been hired to deal with magical and alien-related crimes for the last few years - they're no longer really unexplained. But this is something else."

Lyra's eyes sparkled. "Something new? Lemme see!"

Scully blinked. "Um… Mulder?"

"They could be helpful." Mulder said, smirking.

Scully sighed. "Fine." She opened the file. "You are all aware of the Underground, yes?"

"Yep." Mulder said, sitting back.

Lyra nodded. "Quasi-magical race of beings that was sealed away eons ago. So _fascinating."_

"Well, something unexplained has been happening down _there."_ Scully said, taking out an image from the folder. The image showed a strange white face with two eyes - the right with a black streak going up, and the left with a black streak going down. It was smiling a haunting smile, and it seemed like it wasn't all there - as if it was…

"Glitching?" Bon Bon said, looking closely at the image. "How-?"

"Yeah." Scully said. "Apparently this figure has been sighted 'glitching' through the air in several places all over the Underground, though sightings have only occurred in populated areas."

"So, a glitching figure." Mulder said, shrugging. "That's not all that unusual. Illusion… Hologram…"

"There have been several confirmed cases of individuals touching this apparition. Unusual things happen when they do. Those touched either cease to exist, turn into some grey existential shadow of themselves, or are bent inside-out in an impossible fashion." At the last point on her list, Scully showed the group a very gruesome photo of a human man's organs turned inside out, with his face in his pelvis.

Mulder and Bon Bon reeled - Lyra's eyes just sparkled. "Cooooool." She said.

"You're freaky." Mulder responded, chuckling. "So, looks like we have a bona-fide X-file… something unexplained." He looked closer at the picture. "I wonder who you are…"

Miles away, beneath Mt Ebott of Ireland, a cigarette was lit.

"Mulder will be here soon." The Cigarette Smoking Man said. "We must work fast…"

—

O'Neill and Frisk happened to be at the entrance to the Underground that day. They were playing a rousing game of "try to make the guards flinch." It was pathetically easy to do that to the Royal Guards of the Underground, but it was still hilarious when they couldn't figure out how to respond to a grown man and a kid trailing ice cream in intricate patterns.

Of course some did manage to stay rigid, and those guys got ice cream designs drawn on their armor. Few could stand that.

So it happened that the agents arrived as O'Neill and Frisk were performing a choreographed dance to the delight of some guards and the annoyance of others. (Or rather, Frisk was the once dancing, and O'Neill was just bumbling around looking a bit stilly.)

Lyra blinked. "O'Neill? _What_ are you doing?"

O'Neill instantly stood up rigid, as if nothing had happened. "Nothing. Standing guard to the Underground entrance. Talking to Ambassador Frisk."

Frisk giggled.

Scully rolled her eyes, displaying her FBI badge and Underground permit. "We're here to investigate a case. I assume you'll let us in?"

O'Neill suspiciously glared at them. "Normally I'd have Mulder tossed out the nearest exit…"

Mulder nodded - he remembered O'Neill personally tossing him out of classified places more than once.

"…but since it appears that you actually have _clearance_ this time…" O'Neill groaned - Mulder with clearance. He was surprised the world hadn't ended yet. "I suppose I have to let you in. What's the case?"

"A true X-file!" Lyra piped up, handing O'Neill the image folder. "We've got a case of a 'glitching' apparition that's messing up reality!"

O'Neill winced slightly at the gore-filled picture. "That's a piece of work…"

Frisk looked up. "Lemme see."

O'Neill hesitated only a moment before showing her the pictures. Frisk, to her credit, only shuddered slightly. She closely examined the images and shook her head. "I've never saw anything like this. And I'm pretty sure I met everyone in the Underground."

"Well, that's what we're here to investigate" Bon Bon said, stepping forward. "We need to work fast before evidence disappears."

The agents nodded and walked into the Underground, leaving the sun behind. O'Neill waved as they left. He and frisk got back to messing with the guards.

In a shadowy corner, a skeleton in slippers narrowed his eyes.

"not good." Sans muttered. "not good at all."

—

The Smoking Man put out his cigarette and lit a new one. "How is the establishment process progressing?"

"Like a wet blanket in the summers." Agent Stelnikov said, cleaning his rifle. "At least, that is the told of Clef."

The Smoking Man inwardly sighed at Stelnikov's broken english. The agent was excellent as his job - he was the leader of the agents here for a reason - but english was not his strong suit. It was like there was a mental block that prevented him from speaking it correctly. The Smoking Man walked towards the area where Clef was working.

"Director Clef. I thought I instructed you to give progress to Stelnikov in percentages?"

Clef shrugged. "Seeing as this stabilizer array is about as understandable as those SCPs that can make you taste colors, numbers aren't really a part of this operation." He plugged a wire that looked suspiciously like a snake into a port that may or may not have been made out of brick. "So you can take one of the mints in that platter over there and wait for me to finish."

The Smoking Man shrugged, taking one of the mints as suggested. It was wafer-thin and rather flavorless. "Where are your usual selections of candy Clef?"

"I ate them already to give the port a sugar-intake of the required 7%."

"Ah."

Across the room, Stelnikov was giving the rest of the agents instructions.

"So, then the babies must be held like so, and you must never hates them. Babies are the lifeblood of the universe. You understand no?"

Everyone nodded vigorously. "It makes so much sense now!"

"You bet your rifles it shall." Stelnikov sniffed the air. "Now, remember the talk of hates the enemy?"

The agents all nodded.

"Good. Enemy coming at two o'clock."

As a little monster of the ghost variety floated into the room, several anti-spectral bullets were sent his way. There was no sound - just a poof and some dust.

The Smoking Man sighed. "You think the "DO NOT ENTER" signs would deter them…"

"The monsters here are stupider than Bright's list." Was all Clef had to say on the matter.

The Smoking Man decided not to point out that he had written some of that list. He would save that tidbit of information for later.

"We must be prepared for the anomaly when it comes Director. Keep the chat to a minimum and the work to a maximum."

"Tell that to Stelnikov." Clef muttered.

"…and now we hates the _wall_! The wall is our enemy, and it must be annihilateds! With bullets! Are yes so?"

—

Alphys the yellow dinosaur-like Undergrounder and Undyne the fish-woman were sitting watching anime when there was a knock at the door.

Undyne grunted, getting out of the chair. "I'll tell them to buzz off." She marched over to the door and threw it open, a look of annoyance on her face.

The unicorn, earth pony, man, and woman at the door didn't impress her.

"Hello, I'm agent Scully with the FBI, we are here to ask Doctor Alphas a few questions concerning a case we've been assigned here-"

"You can buzz off." Undyne said, slamming the door in their faces.

As she slumped down on the couch, Alphys turned to her. "Who was it?"

"Some group calling themselves the FBI or…"

Alphys stood bolt upright and ran to the door, throwing it open. She put on a nervous grin, twiddling her fingers. "I-I'm so sorry about that! Come in, use the lab however you want!"

Undyne blinked. "What…?"

"Undyne, these are agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, specifically the X-files division."

Lyra raised a hoof. "Actually the two of us are on loan from Equestrian."

"Y-yes. Anyway, I suppose you are here about the… glitch."

The agents all nodded.

"I'll show you all the footage I have…" Alphys said, pulling herself up to the large monitor and pressing several dozen keys. A few dozen images of the unusual figure appeared on-screen, a handful of which saw it passing through objects and completely disorienting them. Impossible shapes seemed to form, and things were tossed around in ways that seemed impossible.

And of course there was the image of the human turned basically inside out.

Alphys sighed. "Normally with my security network I should have hundreds of more images, as well as videos… but something about it makes the cameras break. Most of my system is down, and I can't even see into New Home, the Core, or the MTT hotel anymore…"

Bon Bon frowned. "What have eyewitnesses said about the anomaly?"

"It's not aggressive." Alphys said. "In fact, it seems to barely be aware of anyone's presence… It seems to drift along, a faraway look in its eyes. And those who are touched by it…" She shuddered. "They seem to lose all sense of reality and cohesion. Then they slowly fade away from existence…"

"Is the general public aware of it?" Mulder asked.

"No." Undyne said, speaking up for the first time. "We don't need a panic, it's being kept quiet." She glared at them. "I hope you're able to deal with it."

Mulder smirked. "We've been handling the unexplained for decades. I'm sure we can handle it."

"Famous last words." Lyra muttered.

Scully rolled her eyes. "May we see one of these patients you mentioned?"

"Sure…" Alphys said, sighing. "Down the hall, seventh door on the right. They're in there…"

The agents wasted no time, quickly heading for the room. They drew the curtain back to reveal a three-headed creature on a bed - the three heads were obviously normal for a creature of his race. What was unusual about it was the monochromatic coloration and faraway look in the eyes.

Alphys walked in behind them. "All of them that survive contact are like this. They mumble incoherent gibberish and can never focus on anything." She shuddered. "It's… Excuse me for a moment." She quickly left the room.

Scully took out a flashlight and shined it in the patient's eyes. There was no response. She frowned, and began some more routine examinations. Bon Bon quickly found a camera in the room, disabling it with a micro EMP pulse. Lyra and Mulder…

…both had their ears hovering above the creatures mouths. Both were relaying what they heard.

Lyra was first. "The lost… the lost… the lost…"

Mulder's mouth was saying something else. "Asriel, such a pity…"

"Master of kells…"

"He who waits beyond the…."

"Fading… ever Fading… Nevermore…"

"Previous Royal Scientist…"

"Beware the Gems…"

"My Boys…"

"243 Years…"

Suddenly the three heads were yelling, causing both Lyra and Mulder to reel back.

"GASTER!"

"GASTER!"

"GASTER!"

"GASTER!"

Then the body faded away into nothingness.

Scully blinked, before sighing. "I know what you're going to say Mulder… and before you go on a wild goose chase that was all just gibberish…"

Mulder smirked. "Scully, no offense, but since when have I _not_ taken random gibberish seriously?"

Scully sighed. "Fine. I'll be investigating actual avenues. For instance, the sightings seem to suspiciously congregate around the Core. That's where _I'll_ be." She left, walking fast.

Mulder walked out of the room, turning to Alphys. "Out of curiosity, who was the Previous Royal Scientist? And what did he work on?"

Alphys furrowed her brow. "I think it was… Anther Fludd? A ghost who spent all their time tinkering with random sounds that could be heard from the surface. A nobody."

Mulder frowned. "I'm going to check to see what he worked on… have any files?"

"Of course." She said, bringing up the computer systems. "Here's everything all the Royal Scientists have ever done, even the classified things."

Mulder looked closely at the list, narrowing his eyes at the things Fludd did. He didn't get very far when Lyra spoke up.

"Where's the Core?"

"W-What?" Alphys asked.

"I said where's the Core? Surely one of the Royal Scientists made it?"

Alphys blinked. "Why… yes I think so. You know come to think of it, _he_ had to make it. It was almost brand new when I was made Royal Scientist…" She looked closely at the screen. "Though I don't think he had any big projects like that… And if he did, it would show up here…"

"Is it possible another scientist worked on it?" Bon Bon asked.

"I suppose so…" Alphys frowned. "But for the life of me I can't remember who made it… You think that'd be something I know… Sorry, I uh… I don't know."

Mulder frowned. This was rather suspicious - but he believed the yellow dinosaur. Which meant something else was going on here.

Lyra poked Mulder. "Looks like Scully was right to head to the Core. It seems like it's in the middle of all this."

Mulder smirked. "I hope she isn't having all the fun without us…"

—

Scully examined a plaque at the entrance to the Core. It was faded, but she could make out some words. _Underground Core, built to design blueprints of…_

She frowned. The next part would seem to have been rubbed off by the average observer, but Scully was looking more closely. It was as if _nothing_ had _ever_ been written there.

She traced her finger along the plaque - she wondered whose name was supposed to be here. As she studied the pattern, she heard a _sound_ behind her. A muffled garbled noise periodically interjected by loud scratchy pings. A bit like a broken video game… As it passed she saw something appear on the blank spot of the plaque for a moment…

 _W. D. Gaster._

She turned around and saw nothing - and heard nothing as well. She frowned - if she had learned one thing in her investigations it was never to ignore unusual noises…

Then she felt a hand on her shoulder. "My dear Scully, what are you doing here?"

She tensed. _She knew that voice…_

—

Stelnikov was bored. The "Smoking Superior" had left a while ago to "see to something" and Clef wasn't speaking to him. The other agents were already trained on his "ways to not die." There wasn't anything to do since there had been no more monsters entering the Core…

"Agent." Stelnikov raised his gun and whirled around till he was face-to-face with the Smoking Man. "Ready your men, we are about to have company."

Stelnikov nodded, signaling to his agents. At that moment, Clef cheered. "Done! The stabilizers are in effect and ready for-"

As if on cure, the glitched figure appeared in the doorway, moving towards the stabilizers. One of Stelnikov's agents was in the way, and when it contacted him he _exploded_ in a shower of blood and guts. The other agents immediately began to fire upon the apparition, with no visible effect. However the creature reacted. Without changing direction it made the heads of several agents explode. It staggeringly moved into Clef's stabilizers, and stood still.

Clef took out a scanner. "It's… working! We're pulling it back into reality!"

"Containment fields up." The Smoking Man said, putting a cigarette to his mouth.

"Already done your smokiness." Clef responded.

The apparition began to solidify - the face was the first to appear, followed by a vaguely humanoid shape wrapped in a black cloak. The form was still randomly phasing in and out, but over time it became more and more steadfast.

"Very good…" The Smoking Man said.

From somewhere to the left, a mint-green blast of energy launched towards the stabilizers. The impact did no damage to the devices due to the containment fields, but it did cause Stelnikov's entire troop to let out another barrage of fire in the direction they thought the magic bullet came from.

"Idiots!" Stelnikov said. "Bullet misled! Came from the other ways for plan!"

"CRAP" Lyra said, raising a shield as a dozen bullets came flying at them. "That didn't work!"

Mulder and Bon Bon nodded to each other, each one ducking to one side and firing their weapons. A few agents went down, but one of their bullets managed to hit Bon Bon in the back leg before she ducked behind a Core crate.

"Damnit." She muttered, trying to focus through the pain. She glared over the top of the Core crate at the agents - they were obviously doing something with the apparition, and she had a feeling they needed to stop it or really really bad things would happen.

Unfortunately they were pinned and she didn't see a way to get any closer…

Then she had an idea. She reached into her pouch - she had brought a grenade. She tossed it over the crate, right for the stabilizers.

Instantly, a glitchy force came from seemingly nowhere and disassembled the grenade into its base parts. Bon Bon cursed - that wasn't good.

The firefight began to die down as everyone realized they needed to conserve ammo. ("Pack plenty of the bullets!") The Smoking Man took this opportunity to speak. "Mulder, perhaps we can come to an agreement here. You know if you continue this pointless mission to stop what we're doing, you're just going to die."

"Yeah, well I happen to have a sneaking suspicion that what you're doing is worth my life."

The Smoking Man sighed, reaching for another cig. "Don't throw your life away Mulder… There is still so much for you to do."

Lyra decided she'd heard enough of this - she charged, her shield still active, deflecting all the bullets. The agents focused their fire on her as she rushed towards the stabilizer."

Clef blinked. "Well I better get out of the way." He ducked to the left.

Mulder leapt out, sure he was protected by Lyra's shield. He ran with her, unaware of Stelnikov aiming a gun from the side. "That's right agent man, feel the hates of bullets."

BLAM!

The bullet whizzed for the air, on a direct trajectory toward Mulder's skull. He should have died that day - but he didn't, for a little girl in a striped shirt tackled him to the ground just in time."

"…Frisk?"

"No time to talk!" She said, pulling him to the left as Stelnikov's next bullet tried to end his life. "Just keep running! Cavalry is on the way!"

"Cavalry?" He asked.

"ALRIGHT YOU SORRY EXCUSES FOR SECRET AGENTS!" The loud voice of O'Neill rang out over the Core. "Let's see how you fare against some _actual military."_

The Smoking Man dropped his freshly lit cigarette. There was no possible way the military could be here, every precaution had been taken…

Then, at that moment, he and Frisk locked eyes. He watched as she, without even watching, leapt over a bullet as it hit the ground. He smirked. "Well played."

O'Neill's squad moved in, laying fire out over the room. The apparition was unaffected by the fire, but more agents were going down - only a handful, Clef, Stelnikov, and the Cigarette Smoking Man remained.

Frisk was rushing left and right, moving people inches to the left or right, making almost none of the bullets hit anything. It was as if she knew exactly where they were going to be.

Mulder would have commented on this if he wasn't trying his darnedest to get to the apparition and _stop_ whatever was happening.

He was too late. The glitch suddenly took a full form - the harrowing image of a thing that should not exist. A skeletal face with two lacerations stretching from either eye socket. The eyes were dead for a moment before one lit with blue energy, and the other burned with orange fire. The face was atop a black cloak, from which two skeletal hands with hallowed palms were visible. The grin was pasted on and disturbing.

 **"I thank you, Six."** W. D. Gaster said as he walked out of the containment field with ease.

The Smoking Man smirked as all the guns suddenly stopped firing. "You must be Gaster."

 **"Indeed I am. And I do intend to go with you willingly, although I have something I must attend to first."** He turned to Frisk, who was standing there, looking slightly confused.

 **"Frisk. I must thank you - if it were not for your efforts, this would never have been possible. And now a new era of reality can be ushered in thanks to you. The Toymakers know not what they have unleashed."**

"Wh- Wh- What?"

 **"You will understand with time, little one. As will most of you."** His grin widened. **"But until then, know this."** He leaned in, staring right into Frisk's soul. **"I. Hate. You. And. Everything. You. Stand. For."**

Frisk shook her head. "I don't hate you-"

 **"And that's the problem."** Gaster said, leaning back. **"You don't - no you cannot - know** ** _why_** **I hate you. It is not within you. At least not yet. And until you can understand, our discussions are at an end."** He turned to Stelnikov. **"You must understand hate as this man does. I look forward to the day you shed your naive shell and can have a true discussion with me about the implications of what you have done."**

Everyone blinked. "WHAT?" Lyra said.

Faster laughed. **"Ah, it will make sense one day. Until then, shall we get out of here Six?"**

The Smoking Man nodded, taking out a pen. He hit a button and his entire team, plus Gaster, were teleported away.

O'Neill, Frisk, and the agents stood there, dumbfounded.

All Frisk could think was _that didn't happen last time._

—

 **"There will come a time when you release me and I become one of your best scientists."** Gaster told the Smoking Man.

"While I would love to ask you how you know that, I suspect you wouldn't tell me."

 **"Naturally. Things must go a certain way. But do know that I would prefer you didn't subject me to certain tests."**

"No Human tests subjects?"

 **"Oh no, sacrifice of expendables is part of science. I would just prefer no mental damage be inflicted upon myself. I will be SCP-4666 for as long as is needed, I only ask you meet me halfway."**

The Smoking Man considered this. "Done. Enjoy your stay at our facilities."

 **"Oh believe me, I will."** Gaster chuckled - a truly disturbing sound. **"I WILL."**

—

Sans watched from a distance as the agents and the military found the location Scully was stowed away in - a nondescript box.

He watched as everyone reconciled what they had just seen. Scully didn't believe a lot of it, as was her thing.

Sans sighed. They had no idea. Not even crazy Mulder had come up with what was truly going on.

Sure, they had figured out that the apparition was the inventor of the Core, tossed out of existence by his own creation. But they didn't know who he _was._ They only knew a name that meant nothing to them - Gaster.

And they had no idea why he was so important.

Sans did, and he found himself wondering why he wasn't telling anyone. He looked down at the message in his hand, written in unusual symbols only he would understand.

SAY HELLO TO P FOR ME. I KNOW YOU AND I WILL COME TO BLOWS SOON, BUT IF YOU CAN, LEAVE HIM OUT OF IT.

-DAD

Sans sighed. He couldn't tell anyone - and he still wasn't sure why. He waved his hand - he just didn't want to work at it he supposed…

He slowly walked away - not even Frisk knew he'd been there, watching the entire time.

She shouldn't be burdened with the ashes of the forgotten…

 ** _WARP SECTOR: (Warhammer 40k)_**

Luther received a communication during his talk with Iris.

 _"I can get you to Holy Terra. In eleven months my troop is due back to Home System for repairs."_

Luther smiled. "My mistress, I have just received world that I can no spread the word of Origin to the Home System itself."

Iris raised an eyebrow. "Oh?"

"Yes my mistress. I have a man on the inside - Space Marine Edwin. I will deal a blow to the Imperium's unwavering philosophy, perhaps in time for them to join us in the coming fight against the Tyranids."

Iris grinned. "You truly are one of our best Priors Luther."

If she had only looked inside Luther's mind at that moment, she would know the true extent of Luther's plan. And then she would have done everything in her power to stop it.

For Luther was going to free the Emperor.

"So…" Ifrit said, annoyed. "Are we _not_ concerned that the Necrons and Dark Eldar are driving the Orks back?"

"No." Orin responded. "We need to prepare for the coming of the Tyranids."

Orilek cackled. "Finally some things I can destroy with reckless abandon! Ahahahhahha!"

"Orilek, restrain yourself or I will keep you from the front lines." Orin retorted.

"By the way…" Iris asked. "How are Marv and Resprin doing?"

"They're destroying Tyranids by the hundred."

"Ah, I've always wanted to generate a large flyswatter." Marv said, destroying Tyranid after Tyranid with a swish of aforementioned large bug-killing object. "I've just never had a good reason to do so till now."

Resprin found her husband's eccentricities a bit… much. But at least he was having fun killing all the bugs. It was so _adorable!_

…Wait, what were the bugs doing?

"Dear, they're surrounding you in a perfect sphere."

"Oh are they? What do they expect to do?" He laughed, blowing a third of the sphere away with a simple thought. "They are pathetic beings! And they're just scouts as well, nothing to worry about-"

"Dear. They all have the prior gene in them."

"And what could that possibly do? We _created_ that gene. Though I suppose if it makes you feel better I'll get out of the sphere in case they have some plan with it…"

As it turned out, the sphere wasn't a weapon. It was a distraction from the real weapon. From a light year away, a group a Tyranids had joined into some strange cylindrical shape that suddenly jumped into range, blasting Marv with a beam of transdimensional energy. Had it not been for Marv's military instincts, he would have died in that moment.

No longer joking, he crossed the distance to the cylinder instantly and broke it in half with a thought. "That was close…" He said.

"They're getting smarter." Resprin observed.

"Not a good thing." Marv responded.

The Imperium itself was in turmoil - at this point, even the regular citizens knew that they were _losing_ the engagements with the Ori. There were three camps - those who wanted to keep fighting to the death, those who wanted to convert to Origin, and those who just wanted to surrender because they were tired of losing.

Tensions were high. Firefights had begun to break out on entire planets over the issue, on worlds the Ori hadn't even touched. Entire ships began to mutiny and leave Imperium space completely, hoping they would run into something else eventually. The few that knew about the Imperium's explorational fleet heading towards the Ori Star Cluster followed their path, but that was only a handful. Most just turned a random direction into empty space and hoped for the best.

With their armies deserting, the Imperium was breaking at the seams. It seemed that the entire nation could collapse at any moment - either by the Ori, Civil War, or simple disaster that came from nowhere.

Yet, despite all this, the Home System was still peaceful and well defended. The highly developed planets were ready to face anything, and loyalty to the Emperor was at an all time high.

In the midst of this all, Edwin arrived, Luther hidden away in the depths of his ship.

Luther smiled. The time had come.

The Eldar Farseer panicked. Oh no. Everything was about to go wrong at the exact same time… And he couldn't stop the visions… the visions…

"The black crusade is ready!" The Chaos Sorcerer grinned. "We shall devour this Sector of the galaxy in the name of Chaos!"

The Keeper of Secrets nodded in approval. **"BEGIN!"**

The Eldar Station Farpoint-8 saw the Tyranids first. Normally, light from other galaxies was visible from the station. The Eldar tried to use the escape pods, but there was no hope for them.

The Tyranid's wave had arrived in the Galaxy, and they were hungry.

Luther teleported himself into the Emperor's presence. He felt the Emperor's psykers charge their power to stop him.

He knew they were never going to let him live - the power of the guards would simply destroy his very being. But he had enough time to set his Emperor free.

"My Emperor! IT IS TIME FOR YOU TO LIVE!"

As Luther died, his energy flooded the Golden Throne… A bright light began to shine…

The Trailblazer _felt_ a tremendous magical surge cross through space.

Madeline felt the crystal powder in her body _vibrate_ in excitement.

"Impossible…" She said. From the noises she heard from the engine room, the other Crystalline Ones were just as surprised.

"That's… that's off the scale!"

[Never before has there been a magical signal of that power]

[We must hurry.]

"What's wrong?" One of their visitors said.

Madeline turned to Gradient of Remnant. "Our mission has just become more interesting. The magical source is more powerful than we ever imagined. Do you still wish to come with us?"

"You bet I do." He smirked. "We didn't come on board your ship to do nothing, after all."

Madeline nodded. "Maximum speed, we need to move fast. Something is happening as we speak."

[If we obtained that power source…]

The Eldar Farseer cried.

There was too much… too much…

The End was near…

 ** _PEGASUS SECTOR:_**

Minuette the blue unicorn woke up to the sneering face of a Romulan. She grinned. "Oh hiiii! How are you- AAAGH!" She screamed as pain was sent through her body. She lit her horn, trying to fight back, but she was not an expert in combat spells - her magic fell harmlessly against the forcefield.

"Interesting." The Romulan noted. "First instinct was friendly. This supports what we've been told..."

"Rumors are not substantiated by one individual." A coworker Minuette couldn't see noted.

"True... But this is still valuable information."

Minuette struggled, attempting to get out of her bonds. "Why... why are you doing this?"

"Why? We are simply curious to see how you work. We get the most information when you are awake during the procedures. Now..." He said, taking out a rather large knife. "Time to remove the horn."

Minuette began to panic, but it was no use - the Romulan moved in and she felt more pain than she thought was possible.

In another room, a Prior was sitting. His name was Yerin.

"You have not blocked my powers..." He said to his captor. "Why not? I could escape at any moment now."

"We lack the device that the Tau'ri invented. But know this - the ship is designed to only accept the mental imprint of the captain. If you alter his mind in any way, this ship is dead in the water - and we are far from any inhabited world. You are stuck here."

Yerin frowned. "What makes you think I don't have the power to simply move the ship myself? Or teleport light years away?"

"If you had those powers your kind would have used them and we would be aware of it. As it is, your power cannot move this ship more than a few light years, and you cannot teleport distances larger than a few dozen miles."

Yerin nodded. "How do you plan on experimenting with me though? I will not allow myself to come to the level of harm the unicorn in the other cell is."

"We are willing to cut you a deal. Willingly show us your powers, and we will dismantle the bomb we have placed on the Temple of Celestis."

Yerin stood up strong. "You wouldn't dare-"

"Read my mind. We have. And we will give the order to detonate. Despite your power, I expect most of the Prior population will be destroyed in the nuclear blast." The Romulan leaned in. "And if we are correct you lack the resources to make any more Priors."

Yerin glared. "I will display my powers for you one one condition... You stop the tortures on the unicorn."

"Done. I will have her horn reattached at once."

Todd yelled. "You Travelers know no boundaries do you?"

"Well maybe if you weren't a bunch of life-eaters this wouldn't happen!" The Traveler, Aena, yelled back.

"Oh, would you like us to drop a disease on you? Because now that we don't need to eat you I'm sure many of us would see no problem in wiping you from existence!"

"You show your true colors at last! The Wraith never deserved any retribution!"

"SHUT THE HECK UP." Shepard yelled, glaring at the two of them. "Todd, the Travelers didn't launch these biological weapons..."

"Well then, Shepard, who did?"

Shepard turned to a vulcan and nodded. The vulcan turned on the view screen, displaying an unusual ship flying away from a planet at high speed. The vulcan spoke. "This picture was taken from a tactical cloaked puddlejumper that was there observing Wraith activity. The unusual craft was observed entering the system, dumping an unknown compound into the atmosphere, and leaving within two minutes. It does not mach Traveler, Wraith, Ancient, or Coalition technology. It does, however, look similar to the Vanir ships we encountered several years back."

Todd growled. "The Vanir... Cowards if there ever were..."

Aena frowned. "Why would they be doing this?"

"Best guess?" Shepard said, waving his hand. "They decided the Wraith were vulnerable and saw an opportunity. All the planets were the disease originated were non-converted Wraith outposts... So they at least have a tactical goal in mind. However it is spreading, and they obviously don't care who it hits."

Todd growled. "Where can we find them...?"

"All we know is that the world they live on is highly toxic. We don't know where it is. We have no idea where to start looking..."

Todd sighed. "And how is the cure to the bioweapon progressing?"

Keller spoke up for the first time. "The concoction we've created can prevent the bioweapon from running it's course - destroying all Wraith tissue - but once a Wraith is infected we see no way to cure them in time. It only takes a few days for them to rot away to nothing. And we can't give the 'cure' to every Wraith - it's far too difficult to make."

"We must make it a priority to find the Vanir and stop this disease from spreading." Todd said. "I will initiate quarantine protocols where possible and will focus scouting missions on toxic planets. We will find them..."

"Oh, and some more great news." Shepard said, picking up a pad. "Some crazy Wraith scientist has figured out how to fire drones out of a hive. That was a nasty surprise. Though tactical tells me it's only a minor setback - we are almost entirely victorious against the Wraith. It is predicted that the war will only go on for a few more years." He smirked. "I have to say, I'm looking forward to the celebration party."

"That's an understatement." Aena responded.

 ** _EEZO SECTOR: (Mass Effect)_**

 ** _(Nano Soldier 2016, Dream-Thinker)_**

The Spectres, despite seeing the fleet on recording prior to their mission, were still shocked at the sheer size of the alien fleet - even the most stubborn among them knew that the Aliens could potentially destroy the Status Quo that the galaxy depended on. "Initiate contact with the fleet, we need to begin negotiations immediately if we're going to prevent a war we can't win." Stated Nihulus bluntly. The crew of the Spectre ship nodded before opening all channels with the alien fleet; they soon received a response and communications began. The Spectres quickly became exasperated with the so called "Tau" as they _frequently_ spoke about the Greater Good, their religion. "Ambassador, whilst your religion is fascinating it is vital that you meet with the Council as soon as possible in order to smooth out the situation with the fleet you destroyed." Replied Vasair. The Tau Earth Caste member acting as ambassador told the Spectres that they would send a party of diplomats to the Council for negotiations.

It didn't take very long for a smaller Tau ship to break away from the fleet. The Spectre occupied ship led the Tau to the local Mass Relay where they would travel to the Citadel for negotiations.

 **Council Archived data: Tau negotiations**

Tevos was nervous, something she hadn't felt in a minimum of 300 years - but first contact with a powerful new race that had already angered the Turians was certainly something that would make even the stiffest of Asari Matriarchs nervous. The Spectres had successfully made contact with the Tau and gotten them to send a group ambassadors for negotiations. The Salarian Councillor seemed disinterested with the race themselves but was almost drooling over the Tau's technology while Sparatus was silently fuming in frustration, the Primarch of Palaven was making it quite clear to the Turian Councillor that his people wanted compensation for the attack. Tevos' musings were cut shirt by the arrival of the Tau ambassadors into the Council Chamber. The party of diplomats was only four people - though there were several armed guards alongside them, each one equipped with a long barreled rifle. "Greetings ambassadors of the Tau, I am Councillor Tevos of the Asari." Began Tevos. The Salarian Councillor introduced herself and then Spartacus finished the Councillors introduction.

Spartacus eyed the blue-skinned ambassador of the mysterious aliens as he explained their actions.

"My name is Myen O'Res and we are known as the Tau. We strive for the Greater Good of all, for all races can work together to achieve true wonders."

The Council, specifically Tevos gestured for O'Res to continue.

Myen O'Res continued. "We're from the galactic north. Our sector of space is torn apart by war. We, fearing for our future, sent out a scout force into the unknown. We were unaware that this section of the galaxy was inhabited."

Myen O'Res's statement was immediately scrutinized by all members of the Council - especially the Salarian Councillor.

"Impossible! The amount of Element Zero required to travel that distance would be counter-productive."

Myen O'Res took the skepticism in stride before showing the Council several combat logs of Spacebattles taking place against the Imperium of Man. The logs proved sufficient evidence to silence further skepticism from the Council - though he noticed that there was much more tension in the atmosphere than before.

"Continuing on, upon our arrival in an this section of the galaxy, we encountered an unknown fleet, which we now know to have belonged to the Turians, who opened fire on us with no warning. So you see, we acted in self-defense."

Councilor Valern nodded. "Yes, we now understand the situation, and we do apologize for the misunderstanding. In order to compensate we can offer knowledge of this area of the galaxy." It went unspoken between the Council that they hoped to acquire information on the Tau as well so that they would be able to manipulate them better.

Myen O'Res smiled. "That would be greatly appreciated. The Volus have already told us much."

Councilor Spartacus repressed the urge to growl. "Do keep in mind that the Volus are our client race..."

His government was extremely concerned about the Volus being so close to the new arrivals as the small race was needed to maintain Turian finances; it was also no secret that many Volus were still bitter with being a client race. As misfortune would have it, news on that matter was imminent.

"Not anymore." Stated Myen O'Res bluntly, drawing shock from the Council.

Spartacus blinked in surprise. "Wha-what?" He was sure he'd miss heard the Tau ambassador; no species worked fast enough to change an entire race's allegiance.

"They have joined the Greater Good and are now part of our empire. We have sworn to treat them with respect and equality unlike your own kind." Tevos could tell that Myen O'Res was serious in his claim and even more serious with the underlying layer of smugness in his tone.

"WHAT?!" With a yell of rage, Spartacus rose form his seat. "HOW DARE YOU!"

Councilor Valern quickly got over his shock. "This is an outrage! You must return to Volus to the Turians!"

Tevos refused to speak, she knew what was coming and quickly decided to keep the Asari out of the matter. She would also try to convince Valern to leave the Salarians out of it too. She silently cursed the stubborn and uncompromising nature of the Turians which was about to cause a war they couldn't win.

Myen O'Res lost his smile. "I'm afraid that is impossible. Any race that joins our empire remain there for the rest of eternity; the Volus agreed to join us of their own free will. We shall not return them to what effectively amounts to slavery." Myen O'Res locked eyes with Spartacus, both politicians refusing to back down.

"There's been a horrible misunderstanding, the Turians depend on the Volus for their economic handling. Surly you can come to an understating..." Started Valern but was interrupted by Spartacus slamming his hands down.

Spartacus clenched his fist. "If you don't relinquish them, it will be war!"

There was silence in the Council chambers before Myen O'Res spoke.

"...Then war it shall be but it shall only be between the Tau and the Turians, we have no need to war with anyone else."

Myen O'Res plus his fellow ambassadors and guards left the Council Chambers to return to their ship. Tevos looked at Spartacus with nothing hiding the distain she felt for him in that instance. "Spartacus, today you have done something beyond idiotic; you have no one to blame but yourself when your military is reduced to a shell of its former self and the rest of the galaxy leaves you behind. The Asari will not aid you in this mad war and I hope the Salarians do the same; the Turians face will face the Tau's wrath themselves."


	10. T-MINUS 242 YEARS

**_T-MINUS 242 YEARS: (ORBSyndicate, Nano Soldier2016)_**

 ** _EARTH SECTOR:_**

Frisk loved Atlantis - the city was a place of legend, and she found it amazing that this thing was so old it predated the lockup of Monsters beneath Mt Ebott- she could even see how the architecture of this building influenced some of the buildings beneath the ground.

Frisk was now a teenager - she didn't know her exact age, due to certain timey-wmey reasons - but she was approaching adult age. Apparently most of her friends hadn't even known she was really a kid, just thinking that she was what all humans looked like. That was interesting.

Currently, she was sitting on a beach chair at Atlantis' edge, watching the waves of Earth's ocean. She had to admit, she was a little proud of herself and her friends - they had managed to come out into the open of human society, and not be rejected. Most of the Monster race was already at Midgard, happy that they were getting a home with a nice blue sky and a sun.

Plus, she had a lot of new friends now. O'Neill and Daniel were some of her favorites. Considering that most of her interactions with her own race were… less than pleasant… prior to her encounter in the Underground, people had been _very_ mean. But the Underground had opened her eyes, and she was going to see the best in everyone - and so far that had worked wonders - she was doing so much in the world.

And now that she was a teenager there were a lot less strange glances at the negotiation table.

"Hey kid!" O'Neill said, coming in. "Apparently the horses are playing something called Buckball. Let's go see what they're up to and root for the losers!"

"YEAH!"

—

Gaster grinned. **"** **So, shall the tests begin? I'm sure you're all eager to get a piece of me."** He sat back. **"** **Better get to it while you can, I'll be out of this place soon."**

Dr Gears scribbled a note on his clipboard. _Arrogant. But probably knows what he's talking about._

"Mister Wing Din Gaster, would you like to describe yourself to us?"

 **"** **I am what was removed. I am what was lost. I was the dual fall of Justice. I was the creator of the Core of the Underground. I was a father. I was a scientist. I did what needed to be done."** His eyes focused on Dr Gears through the special enchanted glass. **"** **And I will create a new age once again."**

 _Possible clairvoyance._ "What would this be…?"

 **"** **One of your 'false' SCP-001 documents is closer to the truth than you can imagine. You just lack the evidence to prove it in any way."** Gaster grinned. **"** **I am connected to that Truth which you cannot see, and will give you much more than you can possibly tell."**

Gears' face didn't change. "We'll consider this, Gaster."

 **"** **You dismiss me now. You won't forever…"**

 **—**

The Fires of Celestis were reignited. The Doci smiled, glancing to Tomin and smiling. The two leaders of the Reform turned to the crowd that had gathered.

"Proof!" The Doci yelled. "Proof that we do not need the Ori to lead us to Origin! We can light the fires of Celestis ourselves!"

Tomin nodded in agreement. "Our people have worked together to once more bring our great capital to the way it once was - the fires will spread through the city once more, giving us all the luxuries we need. And it will no longer be just the domain of the Priors, we will share in it. We will build new buildings. The Fires will be fore all!"

The Doci and Tomin raised their fists into the air, and the crowd cheered - both Priors and regular Reform celebrating.

Tomin and the Doci shook hands. "It's been a lot of work…" Tomin said. "But finally, finally, we have overcome our old masters…"

The Doci simply nodded. Then his warm expression faltered. "GET DOWN!" He said, raising one of his shields.

The other Priors tried to do the same, but their powers were not strong enough - only the Doci managed to keep his up as the Fires of Celestis _exploded_ around them. The entire hall was engulfed in liquid plasma.

From inside the shield, the Doci and Tomin watched in horror as their work to restart the capital crumbled around them.

But it was worse than that…

They didn't notice at the time, but a third of all the Priors in existence were attending that meeting.

Their numbers had just been decimated.

—

The Doci was furious, and the inhabitants of Coalition Central Station were concerned he was going to blow a fuse and destroy the entire station.

"I WANT TO KNOW WHO DID THIS AND WHY."

A Vulcan by the name a Sarek stood up. "Logic dictates that it would not be one of the Coalition members - risking your position here at this table would be far too much. In addition, many respect the protection your Priors offer us. So naturally it is either an extremist group or one outside the Coalition."

"The explosion was triggered using a hashed-together magical bomb…" A Tellarite noted.

"Romulans…" The Doci growled.

"Most likely." Sarek said. "The Priors are the most tangible threat to them, and since they cannot fight us directly, they are resorting to underhanded tactics."

The Doci slammed his fists into the table, turning the area around him to ash in a burst of light. "The Reform are declaring official war on the Romulans. There will be no peace."

Daniel nodded. "I don't think they want peace anyway. I am fairly certain the rest of the Coalition will follow your lead. Though at the moment we don't have the slightest idea where they are."

The Doci's eyes lit up with fire in them. "I will personally see to it that they are found."

—

O'Neill and Frisk were taking a nap on the bridge of the Enterprise while they explored out into yet another unknown territory. The problem was they were sleeping in Archer's _chair._ Which wouldn't normally be a problem - that is, if O'Neill was actually giving any orders from that chair.

As it was, _sleep_ , and nothing but sleep. The General often irked Archer. And even though the man was a hero and a tactical genius (and he was great and lightening up the mood in the room) sometimes Archer found him… insufferable.

For instance, this entire trip he had decided to bring his kid along. (Well, Archer knew Frisk wasn't his kid, but she might as well be.) She was young - smart, but young. And Archer couldn't bring himself to see a _kid_ as an _ambassador._ It didn't help that Frisk _acted_ like a kid - goofing off, asking 'innocent' questions, etcetera…

Then Archer reminded himself that O'Neill was basically a man child anyway. He sighed.

"Captain! Unidentified ship coming up on the sensors!"

A strange prism-shaped ship appeared on the screen. O'Neill and Frisk shook awake as Archer ordered the hail to be sent out.

"This the Tau'ri starship Enterprise. We are on a peaceful exploration mission and come in peace."

A response came in - on the screen appeared a strange crystalline creature with two eyes. "WE ARE THE THOLIANS. YOU ARE NEAR OUR BORDERS. TURN BACK OR BE FIRED UPON!"

Frisk stood up. "I am Ambassador Frisk. We will honor your request. But would you like to open a dialogue between our races after these proceedings?"

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN?"

Frisk took on a friendly posture. "I mean our two races can talk to each other, discuss trade, share information and culture, that sort of thing."

The Tholian looked to the side as if someone else was talking to him. Then he turned back. "STANDBY. WE MAY CONSIDER THIS."

The connection was severed. There was silence on the bridge.

Archer blinked - the kid knew what she was doing. Wow. So there really wasn't any exaggeration in the tales told about her. A minute of silence passed.

"Sir, several other ships have been detected dropping out of warp-type-translation." An officer said. "They're taking up positions around the Enterprise."

O'Neill sighed. "Fire the Asgard Beam to disable a ship or two…"

The beam fired, incapacitating one of the Tholian ships. However, the dozen or so others started weaving beams of energy between them in quick succession. The Enterprise got off two more shots before a field of energy surrounded them, locking the ship in a well of gravity.

"Hyperdrive error!"

"We can't move!"

O'Neill blinked. "What the hell did they do?"

"They've locked us in some kind of tractor field, and are carrying us away… Space is beginning to warp. Sir, they're towing us!"

Archer frowned. "Blow them out of the sky!"

The Asgard Beam fired, only to have the field intercept it. Rail guns and plasma weapons were no better. The Drones fared a little better - the managed to pass through the barrier - but the destroyed Tholian ships did not cause the web to disengage, and the other ships retreated to a safe distance as they dragged the Enterprise across space."

"Damnit." O'Neill slammed a fist into the wall. "They're smart. And have weird tech."

"They're probably going to cannibalize our technology." Archer said. "We need a way out of here."

Frisk sighed. Well…

•RELOAD

"STANDBY. WE MAY CONSIDER THIS."

The connection was cut, and Frisk sighed. "They're planning to capture us."

"How do you know that?" Archer demanded.

"She's just a genius." O'Neill responded. "Arm weapons, first sign of trouble-"

"They're dropping out of warp! Multiple ships!"

"Blow them out of the sky."

This time, it went differently. The Tholians had no web spun, they were not able to retreat to a safe distance. The ships were all disabled or destroyed by a flurry of drones, masters, and bullets.

O'Neill cleared his throat. "If you want to talk later, you can find the Coalition on this channel. Until then, go crawling back to your superiors and tell them how dumb of an idea it is to attack us."

Archer blinked.

That kid was _good._

Frisk let out a sigh of relief. All was fine once again…

—

Archer walked back into his quarters, deciding that _he_ needed a nap this time..

He sat down on his bed, rubbing his face.

"You are wondering how it was possible for her to discern that from an alien race she had just met seconds before."

Archer looked up to see a man in a strange black suit. He sat bolt upright. "Who are you?"

"Temporal Agent Daniels. You were wondering were you?"

"Yes, but I'm even more curious about who _you_ are! Temporal agent? What on earth-"

"Can't tell you. I'm skitting the Temporal Prime directive simply by being here. But needless to say I'm from the future, and this is a dark time."

"That sentence made no sense."

Daniels frowned. "An event has occurred. In this timeline, something from the _outside_ has entered, threatening all stable futures with it's presence. You are not aware of it now, but you will be. Time itself is changing, and your bright future may be no more."

"Bright future?"

"I've said too much… I am here simply to answer your first concern. The girl, Frisk, is one of those superheroes. She has an extremely powerful ability - the ability to shift time backwards. She knew what was going to happen because she'd done it before."

"Why are you telling me this?"

"Because all of time is at war. The Second Great Time War… and unfortunately your time is the apex of it. I expect we will meet again." And then Daniels was gone.

Archer blinked. "WHAT?"

Then he thought about it. This information about Frisk.. it made sense. And if it made sense, and he was told for a reason… What if that reason was that he was supposed to watch Frisk? But then, could he watch her if she knew everything he was going to do? If she knew he knew?

He would think about it for a while… but he expected he wouldn't tell Frisk he knew.

And he just remembered - there was some kind of rule about not corrupting the timeline in the document he signed. So he wasn't sure he _could_ say anything…

…He'd just watch…

—

Daniel looked at the sheaf of papers in front of him.

Two movements caught his eye.

 _Proposal for Single Earth Nation._ It was still in the early stages, but in several years, it might become a reality.

But there was something else of a more upcoming variety…

 _Proposal for a Galactic Olympiad._ And in big green letters under it _Approved, to be held in seven years on Atlantis when they return from Pegasus._

He smiled. The galaxy was changing for the better…

—

On a planet soon to be visited by the Enterprise, something stirred.

A three meter tall being of chrome and thorns stood up, time flowing around it in rivers.

The time had come.

The Shrike moved.

 ** _WARP SECTOR:_**

The Emperor of Man _stood_. All in his presence instantly bowed - and the Emperor paid them no mind. He strode out of the Golden Throne's chamber, his gigantic posture casting shadows over everyone he passed. There were no questions, no questioning the Emperor - everyone just _knew_ it was him, and that their Emperor was back from the brink of death.

The very ground seemed to shake with every one of his steps as he walked the halls of his home, feeling the very fabric of existence bend around him. He could _feel_ the entirety of Holy Terra below him, as well as the majority of the System. All the ships, all his subjects, all the life…

…He sighed. His subjects had known nothing but war for the longest time, and even with his return that was not to change. He knew about the Black Crusade, about the Tyranids, and about the Ori. And he did not have the power to protect them all…

He spoke, and all within the System heard him.

"Your Emperor has returned to you, Imperium! Your struggles are over! At long last you have the strength to show the galaxy what you truly are! Let us bring our enemies to their knees! All will be vanquished!"

He could _feel_ their cheers. It felt good - but inwardly he sighed. There was going to be so much death, and his children were all going to continue in their violent ways for the time being…

But sacrifices needed to be made. Survival came first. After the fighting ended he could worry about the mental wellbeing of his subjects.

"We go at once to the Supergate. Ready Armada One. I will be coming personally. These Ori need to realize they cannot turn our citizens against us!"

—

Madeline was overseeing Crystal Outpost Warp Alpha, the seeds of a Crystalline Colony on a dead world just outside Imperium space. Already the entire planet was covered in a thin coat of Crystal, with several large tendrils spiraling off into space, already beginning to engulf the world's small moon in its grasp. Eventually, this outpost would reconnect with the Crawling Crystal, though that was centuries away.

Madeline honestly wished they were connected to the Crawling Crystal - for having the full might of the Crystalline Ones would help a lot in this wartorn world. The Ork intelligence received at Remnant didn't cover the half of it - giant warships and multiple sides all locked in an eternal deathmatch that showed no signs of lessening - and in fact looked like it was just about to blow up even more - with the introduction of whatever that magical surge was, there was likely to be new kinds of chaos.

Crystalline shift-scout probe shards had been sent out across the cosmos, landing themselves on multiple planets to observe and possibly guide the inhabitants. Such was standard procedure for all worlds that the Crystalline Ones came into contact with. It wasn't so much an invasion as it was a reconnaissance mission, a way to get information and perhaps help the inhabitants of the world.

Reactions to the Crystalline Ones' presence had been the most negative in recorded history. Even though this was the largest seeding in their records, it was still absurd how negative it was.

All Imperium worlds instantly shattered any Crystalline ones they found - even when the Crystals displayed the army-destroying power they wielded. Many ships had been destroyed, but the Crystals were overwhelmed. The Ori didn't do much better. The Priors came to take care of the Crystalline Ones and were completely decimated until a physical Ori came along to destroy the Crystalline One itself. The Necrons took to using the Crystalline Ones as power sources and ignoring everything they said. The Dark Eldar found ways to cause pain to the crystal lifeforms, and the Eldar proper had ignored the Crystalline Ones entirely. The Orks sometimes worshipped the Crystalline Ones as gods, or just forgot entirely about them… It was sad really.

Then there were the CHAOS-world planted Crystals. They discovered that the magic was toxic to their very being - most destroying themselves before they could become a threat to their brethren. Most. A few Chaos Crystalline ones had been recorded.

The only successful communication had been with worlds cut off from the rest - one particular world where all the races seemed to be living together showed some promise - and the Tau…

—

 _You are planning to leave?_ The Crystalline One asked.

"Yes." The Tau Ethereal responded. "We cannot stay here any longer. Our scouts have reported habitable worlds to the galactic south - we must perform a Mass Exodus immediately."

 _I am sorry to hear that. You have been the only race to actively open dialogues with us. Without you this sector is rather… dark._

"Hence why we're leaving. There's too much death…"

 _We must stay here - all life is sacred and must be protected. We will try to enlighten the rest of the races to that fact._

"Good luck. We've been trying to preach the Greater Good to them for centuries…"

 _Perhaps you simply lacked the strength and superiority to pull it off. We have immense power and exponentially increasing reserves._

"I wish you luck in your endeavors, but the Tau have already made their decision."

 _In that case, Some of my brethren wish to come with you._

The Ethereal blinked. "Do you want to join the Greater Good?"

 _Not our race as a whole, but we see no conflict between our ideals and yours. You strive towards a greater good. We hold all life as sacred, though we also hold the progress of the Crystal in high regard as well. We simply would like to serve as ambassadors of a kind to the next sector._

"They likely won't react well to your 'seeding' ritual…"

 _Few do, though the negative response here has been much more than most. But it is our way. We do not harm any of the individuals we come in contact with._

"…I shall discuss this with my brothers, but you will at the very least be allowed to come with us."

—

Armada One arrived at the Ori Supergate. For the last few weeks they had been ploughing a straight line through Ori controlled worlds in a beeline for the gate - and so far only three of their ships had been destroyed.

The Ori didn't know _what_ exactly was coming at them, but whatever it was had resisted all forms of attack, and all Ori sent to fight it directly had failed to report back.

Ifrit was the unlucky Ori told to wait with the fleet on the warp side of the gate - the other Ori were all safe at home in their cluster, ready to shoot beams of energy through the open supergate at whatever was coming.

They were prepared for an attack from their lost brethren, the Alterans.

They had no idea that what was coming was WORSE.

The Emperor's ships dropped out of system. The Emperor himself wasted no time. He clenched his fist, bringing Ifrit right to him.

"What the-?" The Ori said, barely able to get anything out before the Emperor squelched the pathetic spirit beneath his impressive might.

"Destroy the ships." He ordered. "Save the gate."

The Ori ships stood no chance without their guardian, wiped out within minutes. However, at the tail end of the fight, a beam of pure Ori energy shot from the Gate and engulfed the entire Armada One.

The Emperor let out a gasp - he actually felt _strained_ as he kept the impressive force back. But he was stronger. He gritted his teeth and summoned his power to resist the onslaught. A few ships on the edge of the Armada were disintegrated, but it was a small number.

The Emperor reached out with his powers and deactivated the Supergate. Exactly one second later he dialed out, connecting the other way with the Ori cluster.

"I will be back. Do not follow me - it is far too dangerous for you on the other side."

He _floated_ out of the ship - entering the vacuum of space for the first time. It was an… unusual feeling, but not uncomfortable. He kept his human visage and armor as he floated through the gate.

On the other side, he wasted no time letting all of his energy explode, vanquishing most of the Ori on the other side instantly.

"That's that." He said. It was honestly a little sad how pathetic they had become…

"You know nothing." A voice said - a powerful voice. Orin, leader of the Ori cluster, descended on the Emperor of Mankind with all he had - both deities clashing in a burst of glory that could be felt across the sector. Above their heads, the disc of the Galaxy could be seen, playing witness to their clash.

Energies the like of which mortal beings could not understand were at play - reality itself warped and shifted around them, tearing space into shreds.

Any psychic being in the entire Galaxy _felt_ the clash of titans. To some it was just an itch. Others instantly knew beings of untold power were fighting directly.

"You are a disgrace!" The Emperor yelled. "Your kind were once men! And now you force others to worship you to satisfy your own taste for power! You sicken me!"

"We are not all that unlike…" And then Orin spoke the Emperor's _name._ This gave the Emperor pause. "You let your followers worship you - and it gives them power."

"I never declared myself a god. They did that themselves."

"As was the same with the first Ori…" Orin paused. "Do you know what you truly are?"

"I am the savior of mankind! I am their voice against the chaos and darkness!"

"No. You are a result of colliding variables reaching critical mass. Humanity is nothing more than the second phase of our race, and you are nothing more than the culmination of our own design. _You_ are one of _us_. Without us you would not exist."

"You lie."

"I do not. You are the result of conflicting Ori and Alteran interests in the Galaxy. Your planet was the scene of a war long ago - a war the likes of which you do not know. You are simply a byprouct-"

The Emperor reached out and grabbed Orin - realizing how inferior the being truly was. The Ancient Ori was simply more tactical in his energy usage. The being spasmed, causing all the stars within a dozen light years to explode. The ancient being Orin - the son of Ori himself - roared in anger as his life was squished out of him.

"You should watch your experiments." The Emperor growled.

Orin was no more…

The Emperor spent next few days extinguishing every Ori within the cluster, then returning to his home. He then deactivated the supergate manually - though he could activate it himself should the need ever arise.

"There. They are done with. Time to focus on more important threats…"

—

Ori himself felt the death of his son.

It was the only being he had any connection to in existence.

He roared in rage, the other Ori around him shaking in fear.

"ONE DAY, YOU WILL PAY." He said.

The last remaining Ori cluster feared for their lives - for the greatest of the Ori was _mad._

Ori himself began to plan. He was patient- he could wait. But the time for revenge would come…

—

The Tyranid hive-mind _thought._

New Primary Target. Emperor Of Mankind. Seek Out And Absorb Material.

All Other Targets Take Secondary Precedence. Including Chaos Structures.

—

The Black Crusade was progressing _wonderfully_. The Emperor of Man hadn't met the Chaos Armies directly yet, so they were progressing more or less unhindered. The Imperium, Neuron and Dark Eldar Alliance, Eldar, and Orks found that they were more or less powerless against the sudden surge of chaotic powers.

The Chaos Sorcerer laughed - the sector would fall! They had not lost a single major battle yet! There was nothing to stand in their way-

He sense a _shadow_ cross the Warp. His confidence vanished in an instant.

 _Ah, so THEY finally decided to show up…_

The Sorcerer heard a lot of chatter - the Tyranids had arrived, and apparently this Chaos fleet was their feeding ground.

"Show these bugs what true Chaos is!" The Sorcerer roared.

The Chaotic ships warped the very space around them and launched quasi-magical beams at the swarm blotting out most of the sky. To the Chaos Sorcerer's surprise, several glowing Tyranid ship-bugs moved to the front and generated a shield not unlike the ones the Priors used.

"Damn." He muttered. "That's a cheap trick."

The Tyranids descended on the Chaos Fleet, literally _eating_ the ships from the inside out, only to find a nasty surprise inside - there were more than a few grand daemons along for the ride, and they were more than capable of smashing through any Prior-Tyranid hybrid. Deamons the size of small cities reached out and destroyed bug after bug.

But it was soon discovered that the Tyranids kept _coming_ \- seemingly without end. And as the fight dragged on - from minutes to hours, hours to days - the bugs began to show signs of adapting Chaos into their own makeup, and somehow doing it without falling under the influences of the Warp.

The Chaos sorcerer hadn't slept since the battle started, and he was trying his absolute best to summon another tear in the Warp to add reinforcements - for the seventh time since the battle began. Neither side would back down from the confrontation, and neither side seemed to be running out of soldiers to throw at each other.

It was a deadlock.

The days were an ever continuing hell - daemons and alien bugs clashed day in and day out, never ceasing. None got any rest, and there were now more dead bodies floating around then there had been combatants to begin with.

Neither side gave up. Both were apparently determined to continue the fight until one side won.

It was on day five that the Chaos Sorcerer realized something - the Tyranids were explicitly targeting things that were unique and different. And then _adapting it into themselves._

"By Tzeentch's Feet! They're only fighting because the more they fight the more they improve! The more soldiers we feed them the stronger they get!" Then he quickly realize what this meant.

He'd have to call a retreat so they'd stop feeding the Tyranid war-machine.

75% of the Chaos United fleet was not going to be happy about that.

He rushed into his chambers, ignoring the shuddering as a nearby ship exploded from one of those new exploding Tyranids.

"Tzeentch…" He called out. "My Master… We must withdraw… I seek your wisdom in seeking how to do so…"

" **PROVIDE THE FLEET WITH ANOTHER WORTHWHILE TARGET."**

"Such as?"

 **"** **I HAVE SOMETHING IN MIND…"**

—

The Four Chaos Gods were meeting for the first time in eons.

"There is actually a threat to our existence." Nurgle said, gurgling. "The Tyranids have forces beyond what all the other races have combined."

Slaanesh giggled. "I'm sure we can find some use for them…"

"Have you not been paying attention? They are immune to our corruption - something is controlling them that keeps them form falling. We can't use them for our purposes!"

"That's not what I meant…"

"You're disturbing."

"You are a being who prolongs life by making your followers suffer. I fail to see the difference."

"BLOOD!" Khorne shouted.

"Yes dear you want blood shush now Nurgy and Slanny are busy talking about which of us is more disturbing."

"Such a discussion is pointless." Nurgle grunted. "We need a plan for these Tyranids. We need to take care of them."

"THE BUGS ARE NO THREAT WE MUST DESTROY THE EMPEROR OF MAN!"

"Thorne, dear…" Slaanesh sighed. "Pleeeeease stop this incessant violence- just relax…"

"RELAXING IS FOR WIMPS!"

"If you wish to take care of the Emperor of man so much, go face him yourself." Gurgle grunted.

"I WILL THEN!"

The "room" fell silent. No Chaos God had actually _left_ the warp in… well ever.

"Then by all means, Khorne, go face the Emperor of Mankind in combat. It surly will serve to rally our troops." Tzeentch said, speaking for the first time.

"I SHALL!"

There was silence once more.

Nurgle spoke first. "Exactly who do you want to win this confrontation, Tzeentch?"

"It's a win-win situation." Was all Tzeentch said. "And you can all be rest assured I have plans for the Tyranids. Just do what you can."

"I don't trust you."

"And you shouldn't, but you don't have much of a choice do you?" Tzeentch chuckled. "I have plans for _everything._ "

Tzeentch turned his focus to the now-unmanned Supergate's shadow in the warp. "Many plans…"

—

The Tyranids worked fast. Already, the majority of Eldar and Dark Eldar space was infested.

Commoragh was one of the only strongholds remaining, and it was the site of quite a tense meeting.

Necrons, Dark Eldar, and Eldar were all standing in the same room. To their side were a few Ori followers and Iris.

And they _weren't shooting at each other._

"We must put our differences behind us." The Eldar Farseer spoke, his voice booming across the room. "We have been enemies for longer than almost all of us have been alive, but we are surrounded by threats much larger than we ever could have imagined - Chaos and the Tyranids have launched their greatest attacks yet, and we can no longer afford to bicker amongst ourselves. What we have suggested here is a truce — we stop the fighting amongst ourselves so we can fight against the true enemies of existence itself." He sighed. "I have seen great terror in the future… but maybe, if we do something none of us thought possible and band together, we can fight back."

To everyone's surprise, applause began to erupt.

Iris smiled - this… this was actually something worthwhile. Something perhaps better than what her dead brethren had been attempting.

She spoke next. "Those of us who survived the onslaught of the Emperor of Mankind pledge ourselves to this cause - the Tyranids are a threat to us all. And with our powers we will direct the Ork WAAAGH to serve our purposes - essentially we are an alliance for defending the Warp sector from it's own death.

 _The Crystalline Ones will provide as much assistance as we can - such beings as Chaos and the Tyranids cannot be allowed to roam free._ A Crystalline One spoke.

"Yeah." Gradient said, standing at the side of the crystal. "Our guys may not be able to help much… But we will be your allies."

The Eldar Farseer looked at what was below him - there was tension. Lots of tension. The next few years were going to be very difficult.

But, for the first time in decades, he felt… Hope.

Hope.

Tears streamed down his face as he _smiled._

—

The following day the Stability was formed, an alliance for the sake of protecting the Warp Sector from destruction.

The Emperor of Mankind sat in his new throne. _That_ development was unexpected.

"We do not fight the new Stability." The Emperor told his soldiers. "They can be useful to us for now. At the moment, we must face Chaos and Tyranids, the true threats."

And with that, the Warp Sector suddenly became a lot simpler -

With the Tau quickly getting the heck out of dodge, there were now only four obvious sides in the Warp Sector: Chaos, Tyranid, Imperium, and Stability.

A great change had come.

 ** _PEGASUS SECTOR:_**

Minuette the unicorn and Yerin the Prior had been with the Romulans for months- the painful experiments had stopped, but they were still being observed closely, and there was no sign they were going to be released.

"What's going to happen to us…?" Minuette asked, staring into space.

Yerin sighed. "They aren't going to let us go… Our only hope is to wait for rescue."

Minuette frowned. "But… We've already been here forever… You think they'd have come by now…"

"Have hope, my little unicorn, they know we are missing. They must be looking for us."

Minuette frowned. She wasn't sure she believed that…

—

The Romulan bird of prey dropped out of warp, cloaked, around a random planet they hadn't scanned yet.

They were detected instantly and dozens of Vanir ships surrounded them, demanding to know who they were and what they were doing here.

The Captain, Razak, was already tense from secretly prowling around the Pegasus sector. This was just too much.

So he decided to try something somewhat unconventional.

"We are the Romulans, representatives of the Romulan Star Empire, we come in peace-"

"We know who you are." The voice said, not letting any face show up on the screen. "And we know you do not come in peace."

"Perhaps not against our enemies." Razak said. "But you are not our enemy. And if your intelligence is correct, your enemy is the Tau'ri and the Coalition."

"Merely annoyances." The voice responded.

"So you are the Vanir?"

"There is no point in denying it." A small grey alien appeared on the screen. "We are the Vanir. And unless you can provide us something worthwhile, your ship will be destroyed. We do not need alliances with lower races that have nothing to offer."

Razak thought quickly. "We have on board a Reform Prior and Equestrian Unicorn prisoner. Perhaps they could be of some use to you."

The Vanir narrowed his eyes. "While that is use-"

"If you board the ship with force they die. However, if you accept an alliance, you can have them. And we could provide intel to you about the "Earth" Sector."

The Vanir paused. "Terms accepted. We will keep some of your men as assurance you will follow your word, of course."

"Of course."

—

Atlantis dropped into space, flanked by ships from every member of the Coalition - even Equis' new battleship the Starswirl and Todd's Rebel Wraith ships.

Before them stood the last major wraith outpost - a world surrounded by a dozen hives.

Shepard grinned. "Let the battle begin!" He roared. Wraith Hives and Coalition Ships began firing at the same time, drones coming from the banks of ships on both sides of the conflict. Shields meant nothing in this fight - drones passed right through every last one of them, impacting ships directly. This meant the Tau'ri ships didn't have their superiority with their shields- but it also meant that less advanced ships like the Jaffa Ha'taks could damage the shieldless Wraith hives.

Drones were released from the hive, thousands streaking towards the fleet. Aboard the Starswirl, two equines grinned.

"They have no idea." Rainbow Dash said.

Starlight smirked. "Well, to be fair, their intelligence gathering skills are poor."

"Can we push the button already?"

"Fine." They pressed their hooves down on the magitech interface, and Starlight lit her horn, working her magic into the matrix of the Starswirl's experimental weapon.

A ball of blue energy shot towards a single drone, making it explode. Then more energy balls shot out of the explosion, seeking out other drones. Then more balls of energy, and more drones destroyed. The recursive cycle kept going until there were thousands of blue energy spheres heading back towards the hives - they did minimal damage upon impact, but almost all the drones had been completely wiped out.

"Gotta hand it to those horses." Shepard said, impressed. "They sure know how to get creative."

The weapons of over a dozen different species flew left and right, impacting ships far and wide.

The Wraith were outnumbered, outgunned, and had been fighting a losing war for the last few years. They fought hard, but it was obvious they were loosing.

"TODD!" The Last Queen yelled, calling the rebellious Wraith. "YOU ARE CAUSING THE DEATH OF YOUR RACE!"

"I am saving our race." He said, before arming his ship's drones and firing.

The Last Queen roared as her hive was destroyed.

The battle was completed - decidedly a coalition victory. Sure, there were losses…

But at that moment, the Wraith Wars were over.

—

"So… what's the future of your race Todd?" Twilight Sparkle asked a few days later.

"A few Queens joined our rebel side - we are not completely doomed." He said. "However, we will be moving to the Earth sector, since the peoples of Pegasus will not accept us."

Twilight Sparkle smiled. "I want you to know that I really appreciate what you've done- you're from a race that everyone thought had no hope to change. That everyone viewed as evil and completely destructive. You put yourself on the line multiple times to change your race for the better - and now you have succeeded."

"Sparkle, I am far from as altruistic as you suggest I am…"

Twilight smiled at him warmly. "You lie to yourself. You have a heart in you - a heart that felt every human you fed upon. That felt the suffering you caused. You had to deny that part of yourself into recently, but when it counted, you found it."

Todd was speechless.

"It must've been extremely hard to go against your nature… Yet you did it. That is more of a victory than the battle we won today. You have turned not only yourself, but your entire race around. It will serve as a model to all of us that anyone can change - even those we thought were our enemies."

"I… Thank you."

"You're welcome. Pinkie's throwing a victory party tonight, you should come."

"I'm not welcome in social settings with humans-"

"Come." Twilight said. "You can be my personal guest if it makes you feel better."

"…Fine."

—

Todd had to admit, the party actually was pretty fun. Aside from the initial silence falling on the room as he entered, everyone ended up having a good time. O'Neill even dropped by with Frisk - they were seeing the Pegasus sector before they boarded the Enterprise to the unknowns of space.

Todd spent a lot of time talking with the various powerful peoples in the room - military individuals and politicians he had worked with closely over the war. A few mentioned that he could possibly have the Wraith join the coalition in a few years should they desire.

He found the whole thing… surreal.

Everything seemed to be working well. There was a way to escape the Wraith hate, and there was places where they were welcome.

There was no more endless fighting and death, or feeding.

He finally admitted it to himself - he didn't really like the feeding. He never had, really. That alicorn was right - he'd been forced to change.

He felt… Well he actually felt _happy._

Such an unusual feeling.

—

We are the Vanir.

We are claiming several abandoned Wraith worlds as our own.

Do not trespass on these worlds. We are not open to negotiations on this.

Leave us to our devices.

Shepard, Todd, and Twilight Sparkle stared at the message.

"Huh." Shepard said. "Well, we know where they are now."

"I think we just leave them alone." Twilight offered. "They've had enough problems."

The Coalition council held later agreed not to declare war on the Vanir - it was time for peace. Just let them be.

 ** _EEZO SECTOR:_**

Tau combat log 1: Tau advance through Turian space

The war with the Turians was going well by Tau standards. Mostly due to two factors: the technology gap between Tau and Turians, and the lack of allies the Turians required to make a decent attempt at war. The Tau held space superiority in almost every battle and their advanced suits easily countered Turian military stubbornness.

"Ethereal, we're within range of the Turian orbital fleet." Aun'shi nodded calmly to the statement and spoke: "Fire the forward Railguns before following up with several bursts of of Ion Cannons 1 through 4. Once the enemy fleet is destroyed, begin the take over of the planet." The crew of the ship obeyed the Ethereal's command and unleashed the weaponry of their vessel.

The Railgun projectiles slammed into the kinetic barriers of the Turian ships, swiftly destroying the shields of each ship through raw power. This left the ships vulnerable to the volley of Ions that dealt significant damage to each vessel, leaving many destroyed - few functional ships remained.

-

Recovered Turian Personal Recorder

Turian Commander Markus Victus, second cousin of Adrian Victus, had built his career on being as loyal and brilliant as possible during battle, but not ever did he risk his men's lives unnecessarily. Those under his command were only prevented from worshipping the ground he walked on through Turian training and willpower. Which was why what he was about to do was the hardest thing he'd ever done.

Markus wasn't blind or stupid, he could clearly see that the war with the Tau was one that the Turians just couldn't win no matter what the higher ups believed. Markus also knew that he wasn't the only Turian who knew the war was unwinnable. Some Turans had formed a small group in which they collectively decided that the safety of themselves and the soldiers under their command was more important than dying for utterly futile reasons. Thus, the plan to break off from the rest of the Turian forces and surrender to the Tau at the first possible opportunity was born; that plan would now be implemented as the Tau invaders began to land upon the planet.

When the general in charge of Invictus' defenses ordered his unit to engage a squadron of Tau Fire Caste, Markus sent the signal to the rest of the Turian commanders that the time was now. As soon as he saw the Tau soldiers he ordered his men to lay down their arms in surrender and across the planet other Turian commanders repeated this action. The events of this day became known to the loyalist survivors as "The Betrayal at Invictus." It would mark the point in the war where even the most stubborn of Turians began to realize just how big a hole they'd dug themselves into.

-

Archived Council Recording: Turian coup and surrender

As the war wore on and more surrenders similar to the ones orchestrated on Invictus occurred, Palaven Command was divided into two groups: those more than willing to drive the Turian race to extinction to preserve Turian honour and those who valued life over tradition; the latter camp had been increasing in popularity and support as the war grew more bleak. Soon, overwhelming public support for surrender to the Tau broke the back of the old Turian way of life and government. A coup was instigated by a combination force of miltary and civilian who wanted the slaughter to end. After several days of intense and bloody fighting not seen since the Unification Wars, the old government was toppled. Mere hours after the coup, a message was sent out across the stars: "We surrender. The Tau are the victors of the war."


End file.
